The building provides student residences and public rooms. The site lies along the edge of the College sports field on Jowett Walk. The sports field is a green oasis on the periphery of the historic city centre, and provides wide, open views which are unusual in the centre of Oxford.

The objective of the design was to realise the Collegeıs immediate requirements for Phase 1, whilst providing a strategy of sufficient flexibility to allow changes of brief in future phases.

The design consists of a series of linked pavilions which reflect the suburban residential character of the area, rather than the quadrangular forms of medieval Oxford. The pavilions, being discreet, make it easy to phase the development. Phase 1 consists of three pavilions at the west end of the site. Phase 2, completed 8 years later, also consists of three pavilions; up to three more will be added in future phases.

Public rooms are on the lower ground floor with a separate circulation system and include a student theatre, seminar rooms, laundry and porterıs lodge. Above the pavilions, three storeys of residential accommodation are connected by a system of bridges. Each pavilion has its own staircase, serving groups of seven study bedrooms on each floor which share a kitchen dining room. Each study bedroom has an en-suite shower and wc.

 

Client Balliol College, Oxford
Phase 1 Completion September 1996
Cost £3m
Contract Type JCT .80
Phase 2 Completion July 2004
Cost £3m
Contract Type JCT .98

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