Blavatnik School of Government of School Blavatnik VIEW FROM RALEIGH PARK Blavatnik School of Government (Hidden) Government of School Blavatnik PANORAMA FROM CARFAX TOWER Blavatnik School of Government of School Blavatnik VIEW FROM WELLINGTON STREET To wn s c a p e The townscape effects of the Blavatnik School of Government (BSG) are being modelled using independent verification methods. Three kinds of view Church St Pauls effects are being assessed.
First is the local setting of the site, along Walton Street. of Government School Blavatnik Second are medium distance views from surrounding areas, including Jericho. These are often limited by interposing buildings and the alignment of the roads, such as above in the view from Carfax, where it is not possible to see the School. Third are the distant, strategic views identified in the cities development plan and other distant viewpoints. The view point selection has emerged WALTON STREET from a careful site analysis and through discussion with the City Council and English Heritage. LITTLE CLARENDON STREET The design development is being informed by townscape analyses which have had regard to character areas, conservation areas and important listed buildings. The assessment methodology takes account of best practice as advised by English Heritage and adapted to the WALTON CRESCENT
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Radcliffe Observatory Quarter The Radcliffe Infirmary site was purchased by the The overall approach assumes that no laboratory The first buildings to open on the site were the new PLOT A buildings will be built at the ROQ. These will continue accommodation blocks at Somerville College which M ATHEM ATICS University in 2003 to accommodate new teaching and to be provided, where required in the centre of the city, opened in mid September 2011. Followed by New INSTITUTE in the Science Area and Keble Triangle. The ROQ is Radcliffe House (the Jericho Health Centre Building) learning space over the next twenty years. The University therefore intended for what is known as “dry”research which was completed in July 2012. The complete has prepared and submitted to Oxford City Council a and teaching, meaning research and teaching which refurbishment of the Radcliffe Infirmary building, takes place in lecture rooms, seminar rooms and libraries, including the courtyard and the fountain, is underway Masterplan to guide development across the site, now rather than laboratories. with completion programmed for the summer of 2012. PLOT B The building will be occupied by the Humanities RADCLIFFE known as the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter (ROQ). The Masterplan evolved in response to extensive INFIRMARY consultation both within and outside the University Divisional Office, the Faculty of Philosophy and the The University’s academic vision for the site was defined prior to it being formally submitted to Oxford City Philosophy and Theology Libraries. Work has begun on Council. the Mathematical Institute Building following a ground in the Masterplan brief and stated that: breaking ceremony in August 2011 and the University The Masterplan will endure for the life of the has planning permission for a new Humanities Building development of the ROQ. Rather than seek to confirm PLOT F ‘The site must work as a whole, providing not a series of and Library in the centre of the site. For further THE a precise design, the Masterplan sets out the policies information on the development of the ROQ please HUMANITIES individual independent facilities, but rather an integrated to which a detailed design for any element of the plan refer to www.ox.ac.uk/roq BUILDING should adhere. campus capable of phased development, to provide the The ROQ site is divided into nine development plots: flexible and sustainable estate the University requires to Plot Status Plot A Mathematical Institute Under construction PLOT E maintain and improve upon its current status.’ Plot B Radcliffe Infirmary Building Under refurbishment SOMERVILLE COLLEGE St. Lukes Chapel TBC STUDENT The resulting Masterplan provides a framework for the Outpatients Building TBC ACCOMMODATION Plot E Somerville Accommodation Completed entire site within which detailed development proposals Plot F Humanities Phase 1 Planning approved can be brought forward, setting out a long-term vision Humanities Phase 2 Planning approved Plot J Jericho Health Centre Completed PLOT J that can be developed in phases as the need for space G - Unassigned NEW H - Unassigned RADCLIFFE HOUSE arises. K - Unassigned L Blavatnik School of Government Design stage -63.00
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Design Principles Prominently located at the southwest corner of the WALTON STREET LEVEL 1 LEVEL 2 LEVEL 3 TOWER Radcliffe Observatory Quarter (ROQ) the Blavatnik Entrance Overhang Library Square School of Government (BSG) will be the first building pedestrians, visitors and students encounter when approaching this quarter from the south. The School has Orthogonal Neighbours Street Frontage the potential to become a gateway into this new part of the University and a symbol of its development. Masterplan Volume Entrance Overhang The immediate context is a complex situation with the GEOMETRY In difference to the orthogonal and rectangular forms The main entrance is located, in a classical manner, in the adjacencies of St Paul’s Church and Somerville College of the surrounding buildings a curved building form middle of the Walton Street elevation, which is centred to both sides and the Oxford University Press across is proposed. This form is just as geometric and as underneath the main teaching floor, Level 1. The purposeful as its neighbours yet distinctly individual. circular geometry of this level, as viewed from Library Walton Street. The School therefore needs a strong This duality allows the surrounding buildings to Square, is transformed into a rectangular form along maintain their readability as important historic Walton Street front, resulting in a shape that evokes form to sit within this tripartite arrangement in order buildings and at the same time gives the BSG a unique the form of the Sheldonian Theatre. The introduction to maintain its own presence and identity among its presence. It also has the great urban benefit of opening of this orthogonal form addresses the historic setting up the ROQ allowing pedestrian movement into the site in a classical manner, both continuing the line of the neighbours. in a more generous and inviting way than a rectangular St. Paul’s Church portico and echoing the symmetrical The proposal is a precise geometric form which allows its building form would. entrance of the Oxford University Press. The proposal of a series of shifted discs, geometric important historic neighbours to maintain and improve circles, is developed from the parameters of the site and plot boundaries. The shifting in floors creates their presence along Walton Street whilst also opening overhangs and covered volumes that identify entrances up generous and inviting access into the Radcliffe into the building and reflects the principles of the ROQ masterplan massing with the mass of the building moved Observatory Quarter. northwest towards the centre of the ROQ site.