The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences is the oldest of the University of Cambridge Museums. Nearly 2 million fossils were disseminated through different buildings and now the time has arrived to reunite all the collection under the same roof – or behind the same façade.
Cowper Griffith Architects had the difficult task of designing a new structure which could represent and blend with the exposition inside. “Natural slate, a material that is formed beneath the earth over millions of years was chosen to reflect the fossils and rock samples housed inside the building”, explains Alice Milligan, architect.
The new modern space was also named after Dr Colin Forbes, a senior figure in the University’s Department of Earth Sciences. Many of the fossils are quite sensitive and recreating the necessary conditions inside was even more important than the external aesthetics.
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Project website: https://www.cupapizarras.com/uk/projects/colin-forbes-building-cambridge-university/
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