St Mary’s Calne Library | Woods Bagot

St Mary’s Calne Library

The Woods Bagot London Studio has put the finishing touches on a beautiful new library at the heart of the St Mary’s Calne School campus in Wiltshire, UK. The library will act as a hub of inspiration and learning, with a striking design that incorporates the adjacent apple orchard and surrounding century-old buildings.

Photography by © Will Pryce

From the western side along the main road that runs through the school, the 660-square-meter structure appears as a simple, rectangular pavilion clad in brick and topped with an articulated roof of timber and glass. Upon entering, however, visitors are welcomed by dynamic interiors, with each storey having a distinct purpose and specified zones.

While the ground floor is meant to be lively, aimed at group projects with direct access to the neighbouring orchard, the upper level is designed for more formal focused, individual studying.

Photography by © Will Pryce

Brick ‘bookends’ or separate ancillary forms along the northern and southern areas of the building’s perimeter, provide storage, stair access, small project rooms, and warehouse control systems. To optimize the spaces available for learning and reading, conventional book racks are dismissed instead there are study booths, display zones, and shelving within the interior walls.

The glazed façade faces northeast to limit direct sunlight while illuminating the newly formed passage from the library to the gardens and orchard. Taking direct inspiration from the fruit trees, several structural support beams connect to the undulating interior-side of the roof to give the impression of a tree’s branches. Clerestory glazing enables the appearance of a floating roof and double height curtain walls fill the spaces with daylight from the top. A metal detail is integrated throughout the façade to continue the vertical elements of the trees.

Photography by © Will Pryce

The scale and detail of the building is in line with the architecture of the entire school in its elevations but is deliberately contemporary in its composition. The outcome is a completion of the western edge of the grounds’ central greenspace and an academic haven for its students.

St Mary’s Calne is a leading independent boarding and day school for girls (aged 11-18), founded in 1873. The school appointed Woods Bagot in 2017 to design a two-storey library facility that would reposition the library as a hub for the school’s academic and social life. Following a collaborative design process that included the headmistress, staff, librarians, and students, the practice has delivered an environment which doesn’t just reflect best practice teaching & learning, but prepares students for the independence of their future academic lives to come.

Photography by © Will Pryce

Project Info:
Architects: Woods Bagot
Location: Wiltshire, United Kingdom
Area: 660 m²
Project Year: 2020
Photographs: Will Pryce
Manufactures:  Aktiva, Allgood, Bolon, Havwoods, Imola, Janinhoff, Gilberts, INTRAsystems, Parklex