Sixties Renaissance: Celebrating a Brutalist Masterpiece

This year marks the milestone anniversary 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, we will be hosting a one-day symposium on Thursday, 17 September 2026. This event will bring together architects, historians, conservation specialists, alumnae, and members of the College community to share research, assessments of the buildings’ significance and personal experiences of living and working on the site.

Organised in partnership with the 20th Century Society, the symposium will feature keynote lectures by Professor Christina Strunck (Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg) and Dr Otto Saumarez-Smith (University of Warwick). The programme will also include 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 day will be accompanied by a short film, an exhibition, and reflections from alumnae on their experience of living in this remarkable building.

While the long lines, concrete and use of water showcased in the Murray Edwards design are echoed at the Barbican, the College demands attention in its own right. Research by Professor Strunck in the College’s archives has revealed the many influences informing Chamberlin’s vision, including Italian Renaissance ecclesiastical architecture and the radical modernist ideas of Le Corbusier.

Her work also explores the iterative process by which the design developed, in close collaboration with the College’s 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 the 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.

As well as setting the College’s architecture in it national and international context, the Symposium will hear from those who were among the first to use the buildings, including students from the first cohorts. They will share 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.

The symposium will begin at 10:45am, with lunch served at 1:15pm. The day will conclude with a drinks reception in the iconic Dome dining hall. More information and booking details are available here.