Biggest expansion of college since 14th century has combined six new buildings with six refurbished buildings
Haworth Tompkins’ expansion of Pembroke College in Cambridge has been named Building of the Year at the 2026 RIBA East Awards.
The scheme, the largest expansion of the Mill Lane site since the 14th century, was described by judges as a “highly impressive, skilfully judged transformation of a complex, formerly impermeable site” within the Cambridge Historic Core Conservation Area.
The project has combined six retrofitted buildings including a disused church with six new buildings, increasing the college’s footprint by one third.
The jury added that the scheme “shows how a disparate group of historic buildings can be reinterpreted and repositioned to create a coherent, outward‑looking, civic-feeling collegiate quarter”.
Pembroke College, one of thirteen winners of regional RIBA East awards at a ceremony held yesterday evening, also picked up Project Architect of the Year for Hannah Constantine.
Special Award winners included The Drift - Abbots Hall by Leep Architects and Corinna Dean, which won Small Project of the Year, and BEAM by Bennetts Associates, which won the Sustainability Award.
Client of the Year was handed to The Serge Hill Project & Tom Stuart-Smith Studio for the Apple House by Okra, an education hub set within a previously neglected orchard.
RIBA East Jury Chair, Julian de Metz, director at dMFK Architects, said: “This year’s winners spanned a wide range of typologies, scales and locations, demonstrating clarity, complexity, delight, beauty and visibly satisfied clients.
“The jury encountered outstanding project architects, and were struck by their mature, confident approaches to reuse, sustainability, conservation and retrofit, with heritage never seeming to be a constraint. In one-off housing especially, we celebrated the value of seemingly everyday architecture, executed with intelligence, responsibility and skill.”
RIBA East Award winners will now be considered for a RIBA National Award in recognition of their architectural excellence, which will be announced on 9 July.
The shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize for the best building of the year will be drawn from the RIBA National Award-winning projects later in the year.
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