Women’s Institute HQ

Sector Community/ Offices

Client Women’s Institute

Location Cambridge

Value £500,000

GEA 2,000 sq ft

Awards RIBA National Award, RIBA Sustainability Award

The conversion of a disused pig farrowing shed into an RIBA award-winning headquarters for the Women’s Institute.

The existing building had little merit, save for it being possible to be awarded a planning permission for commercial space. The project uses the existing building fabric in an imaginative way, bringing out the character of the agricultural building and making a series of interventions and accretions to totally transform an unpromising shell.

‘It is much loved by it’s users...this an exemplary piece of work, where the extent of innovation is matched by rigour and integrity of the detailing’ RIBA Award and Award for Sustainability ‘The Women’s Institute, of course, loves this building. And it is a little gem. It has a frugal yet homely feel... it has also given the WI something it probably never imagined it would ever have–a sentiment which is surely every architect’s most clichéd phrase. By force of his talent, perseverance and personality, Ellis-Miller has helped form a client into a patron.’ Brian Avery, Architect’s Journal