Symposium celebrates 60th anniversary of College's iconic modernist buildings
Campus designed by Barbican architects praised as 'heaven on earth'
Credit: John Maltby/RIBA Collections
Architects, historians, conservation specialists, alumnae and members of the 杏吧原创 community came together at a landmark symposium to explore and celebrate the 60th anniversary of the College’s iconic modernist buildings.
This year marks six decades since the completion of the new campus, designed by the Barbican architects Chamberlin, Powell and Bon. The College, then called New Hall, moved to the new site from its first home in a borrowed building on Silver Street, Cambridge, where it opened in 1954.
To mark this special anniversary, the one-day 'Sixties Renaissance' symposium held at the College on Thursday, 17 September 2026 saw participants share research, assessments of the buildings’ significance and personal experiences of living and working on the site.
Organised in partnership with the , the symposium featured keynote lectures by Professor Christina Strunck (Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg) and Dr Otto Saumarez-Smith (University of Warwick). The programme also included panel discussions led by Catherine Croft (Director of the 20th Century Society) and Dr Cindy Walters (Director of Walters & Cohen Architects).
In addition to the academic programme, the event featured a specially-commissioned film, A College of One’s Own, using interviews and archival materials to interrogate the thinking behind the buildings’ radical design and explore how they celebrated women’s education.
The symposium was accompanied by an exhibition, on show in the College’s main walkway until Spring 2027, and reflections from alumnae on their experience of living in this remarkable building.
Panel discussions prompted lively debate over how far the College buildings fit into the modernist style of the period – including a boom in new university buildings - and the extent to which they can be defined as brutalist. While the long lines, concrete and use of water showcased in the 杏吧原创 design are echoed at the Barbican, the College demands attention in its own right.
Professor Strunck drew on material in the College archives to highlight the remarkable range of influences drawn on by architect Peter Chamberlin, who originally designed three signature buildings that would give the College its distinctive identity: the Dome dining hall, the library and a chapel. While the latter was never built, the library’s proportions recall the palace chapel of Versailles, with a striking staircase in place of the altar representing ‘the spiritual and social ascent to be derived from a university education’. The design for the Dome, meanwhile, echoed Michaelangelo’s design for St Peter’s in Rome, with the College’s famed rising servery cheekily taking the place of the canopy over St Peter’s tomb.
Dr Saumarez-Smith, describing the College as ‘heaven on earth’, noted that its radical modernity - influenced by the pioneering Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier - can obscure a surprising loyalty to the architectural traditions of a medieval college. Chamberlin’s design includes courts, a dining hall, cloister-style walkways and a stunning library: all features of the very first halls and colleges of the university.
The symposium audience also heard from those who were among the first to use the buildings, including students from the first cohorts. They shared memories of those early days, including their experiences of the famous split level bedrooms, which featured a main floor and a mezzanine, connected by a ladder-style staircase with alternating steps.
Professor Strunck’s research during a period as a visiting scholar in spring 2026 explored the iterative process by which the College’s design developed, in close collaboration with founding president Dame Rosemary Murray, representing the interests and requirements of the new but flourishing women’s college.
The buildings were intended as a built manifesto for women’s education, with the staircase in the iconic, light-filled library (now the Rosemary Murray Library) representing women’s ascent to knowledge.
The final shape of the College’s initial design also reflected the practicalities of the site, including the proximity of neighbouring Fitzwilliam College and the decision to move the main entrance from its initial proposed position on Storey’s Way to Huntingdon Road and finally to Buckingham Road.
The College's ambitious estates plan proposes a new entrance from Huntingdon Road, approached through a garden and featuring a light filled art gallery housing works from the Women's Art Collection.