Magdalene College Library

The new library at Magdalene College in Cambridge, designed by Níall McLaughlin Architects and completed in 2023, sits within the college's garden alongside Victorian and Georgian fabric. The building is organised as a series of brick bays separated by tall piers that rise into exposed brick chimneys above the roofline — a datum that acknowledges the collegiate vernacular without reproducing it. Each bay is faced in warm timber boarding and topped by a glazed gable of Douglas fir structure, flooding the reading rooms with north light.