The Driehaus Prize is awarded to an architect whose work embodies the principles of traditional and classical architecture in contemporary society.
Maitland Robinson Library, Downing College, Cambridge
Interior View of Dome
This new library is built on the principle that the books are stacked in the centre of the plan with the carrells arranged under the windows. Thus a square building is formed with a central octagonal staircase providing access between the basement, ground and first floors. With the college's commitment to classicism and its strong emphasis on the Greek Revival, it was felt appropriate that this building should form a 'capriccio' of the outstanding monuments of the Acropolis. For that reason the Portico of Augustus forms the main entrance and south portico of the building; the Choragic monument of Thrasyllus forms the East Portico; and the Tower of the Winds forms the octagonal cupola, which has a Greek Corinthian capital at the apex with a weathervane. The Greek names for the eight winds are inscribed on each of the eight faces of the octagon.
The whole building is made in natural Ketton stone in loadbearing construction. Each of the metopae has been carved to symbolise tripos subjects that are taught in the college.
The entrance doorcase is a combination of Greek work with splayed architraves
combined with Michelangelo's doorcase at the Medici Chapel, Florence
where the reduction in width of the architrave and fine detail foreshadow
the change in taste from the Roman to Greek detail.
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