Major environmental refurbishment of Erasmus Building completed

Designed by Sir Basil Spence and opened in 1961, the Erasmus Building was the first modernist structure along the River Cam. Now, over sixty years later, it has undergone a transformative £8.6 million upgrade, preserving its distinctive architectural heritage but significantly enhancing its energy efficiency and accessibility, while also revolutionising student living with comprehensive, modern and eco-friendly room and building facilities and features.

The refurbishment prioritised environmental performance, with a particular focus on reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions. But alongside these environmental upgrades, the refurbishment has delivered significant improvements to the student experience.

The building now contains 41 student rooms which have all been converted to en-suite bedrooms, plus we have added two en-suite Fellows’ sets and all rooms are equipped with smart environmental controls, allowing residents to adjust various features including room temperature, ventilation and lighting to their individual preferences, plus  external solar shutters have been installed, allowing students to maintain comfort while contributing positively to reducing energy use.

The rooms include a range of dimmable lights, which allow each user to decide the brightness of their room. The brightness of each light is controlled independently from each other, to allow for a wide variety of light levels, and these levels do not reset when the lights are turned on or off.

The kitchens and bathrooms have been completely redeveloped and modernised, and the building has been furnished with bespoke furniture designed specifically for the space. Increased storage space has been added to each room to supplement the original shelving and cupboard units.

A new, fully accessible room and step-free access to the building via lift ensure that the Erasmus Building now provides inclusive accommodation on the East side of the river.

To enhance the building’s overall environmental performance, and provide benefits to the surrounding buildings and lay the groundwork for future decarbonisation plans to take place across the Queens’ College site, several key improvements have been made, including:

• High-performance triple glazing, new insulation to the roof and walls, and solar shading to reduce heat loss in winter and overheating in summer.
• Installation of solar photovoltaic panels on the roof to supply clean electricity to the building.
• Implementation of Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery (MVHR) systems, which recover heat from outgoing air to pre-warm incoming air.
• Replacement of the gas-fired heating system with Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs), resulting in an estimated 90% reduction in carbon emissions and 65% reduction in energy demand for heating.

In total, these measures are expected to reduce the building’s annual carbon emissions by approximately 50,000 kg.

The rooftop ASHP system has been designed to support the College’s Wider Sustainability Goals, with the capacity to support the future decarbonisation of adjacent College buildings. With the hope that this will aid Queens’ wider Environmental Policy and Masterplan, which sets out an ambitious path to achieving Net Zero by 2045.

Domestic Bursar, Andy Bainbridge, said:

“This is a huge step forward towards our decarbonisation road to net zero target of 2045. It was only possible thanks to the generous support of our Alumni and the unwavering dedication of the entire project team, who delivered a truly transformative refurbishment, on time and under budget.”

It is expected that students will be able to occupy the new Erasmus rooms from mid-June and full details of all the new features can be found within detailed guides and videos on our website. We are excited to embark on the next stages of development to fully decarbonise our site and continue working towards creating a sustainable, greener Cambridge.