CGA are pleased to announce the recent completion of the new Geological Collection Archive for the University of Cambridge. The project involved the extension of the A.G Brighton building to create a new facility for the Sedgwick Museum, Department of Earth Sciences and CASP.
The building hosts a world-renowned collection which includes geological specimens collected by Darwin on his 1831 voyage to North Wales and by Priestly on the 1910 Antarctic Terra Nova expedition under Captain Scott. Many samples have been sourced from remote regions, mines which have been closed and quarries which have since been backfilled, making their replacement prohibitively expensive if not impossible.
The extension has been designed to provide ideal conditions for the longevity of the stored specimens whilst also providing an accessible, functional and welcoming experience. The massing of the extension is conceived as three regular volumes which step down from the large collections store at the rear to the lower “human scale” of the entrance and archival research room at the front of the site.
With the building now complete, the 2-year relocation process has started. Each specimen is being individually weighed and labelled before being installed within specialist storage equipment which has been tailored to the buildings purpose. The archive has approximately 245 linear metres of adjustable shelving to house c.4000 purpose-built archive boxes & the Geological Collection store contains 475 storage racks designed to hold approximately 1600 trays/drawers.
Cowper Griffith Architects were responsible for gaining planning permission on behalf of the University and were later novated to the contractor to oversee construction.
