Political CirclesDavid Kohn explores Herzog & de Meuron’sBlavatnik School of Government at Oxford

PhotosIwan Baan, John Cairns

Building

The University of Oxford is the oldest in theEnglish-speaking world but has no precisefoundation date. Young men went to thetown to study in increasing numbers fromthe eleventh century. Tensions with thelocals came to a head in February 1355,when two students attacked the landlord ofthe Swindlestock Tavern after arguing withhim about the quality of his beer. A two-dayriot followed in which around 90 peoplewere killed, and a settlement afterwards gavethe gown significant privileges over the town.

More independent and privately-fundedcolleges ensued, mostly consisting of quads– radical yet introverted buildings that setliving, studying, dining and praying aroundcourtyards. Today there are 38 colleges withas many as eight quads apiece.

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Driven by the need to house collections andthe practicalities of teaching, two citycampuses of museums and laboratories wereestablished in the nineteenth century. In2003 the university purchased the RadcliffeHospital, the largest remaining single site in the city, to make a new campus on whichto centralise the humanities departments.

BelowSite plan; detail of the double-skinnedglazed facade. The inner skin, whichmakes the building watertight andprovides its thermal envelope, is aprefabricated panelised system. Theouter skin comprises 600mm-widepanes of single g lazing separated by30mm air gaps. The 750mm gapbetween skins creates a microclimatethat assists with natural cooling andincreases solar gain and acousticprotection. Offices are natuallyventilated via full-height openablepanels in the inner skin (phs: IB).

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1 Main entrance

2 Rear entrance

3 Oxford University Press

4 Radcliffe Observatory Quarter

5 Somerville College

6 St Paul’s Church

The Observatory Quarter was the object of acontroversial masterplan by Rafael Viñoly in2008. Following Niall McLaughlin’s 2011range for Somerville College along itssouthern edge (AT226) and Viñoly’s 2013Mathematics Faculty to the east (AT244), the Blavatnik School of Government, or BSG,is the latest addition to the site. BSG is afinishing school for future world leaders, the first such institution in Europe and acompetitor to Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Leonard Blavatnik, Britain’srichest man, donated £75m, though notwithout controversy – seemingly anotherOxford tradition – and in 2011 architectHerzog & de Meuron was appointed to designthe building.

Above, rightThe Forum visually connects all thefloors and is intended to represent the“values of openness, communicationand transparency”, says the school’sdean, Ngaire Woods. It also informs the school’s external appearance. “The building’s circular shape is akinto government buildings around theworld and at the same time resonateswith some of Oxford’s most iconicbuildings, such as the Radcliffe Camera and the Sheldonian Theatre”(phs: JC, IB).

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The Radcliffe Observatory Quarter is namedafter the adjacent octagonal tower modelledon the Tower of the Winds in Athens. JohnRadcliffe, a wealthy seventeenth-centurydoctor, funded not only the hospital andobservatory but the 1749 Radcliffe Camera, a rotunda designed by James Gibbs to housea science library in Radcliffe’s memory. The irony of Radcliffe’s personal scorn forbook-learning was apparently not lost oncontemporary commentators. Today thebuilding is used as a reading room for theBodleian Library.

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The architect’s brief was to “facilitate themaximum exchange between people” in linewith the institution’s mission “to inspire andsupport better government and public policyaround the world”. A central cylindricalatrium creates a social space that connects all the floors and their different programmes,from teaching on the lower floors throughacademic offices to a library at the top of thebuilding. Spiralling circulation and openbalconies surrounding the atrium ensureencounters and long diagonal views beforeheading into the offices, meeting and lecturerooms towards the edge of the building. Atthe base of the atrium is the Forum, a centralgathering space for the school, marked by arake of seating.

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1 Forum/informal breakout

2 Lecture theatre

3 Seminar room

4 Green room

5 Kitchen

6 Bike storage

7 Main entrance

8 Rear entrance

9 Reception

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AboveFloor plans (second basement,containing plant room, not shown).

“We saw the BSG as an opportunity toconnect back to the traditionalbuilding typologies”, says architectJacques Herzog. “The interior courtyard– so specific and unique in historiccolleges – has become an internalforum inspired by parliamentary andgovernmental spaces.”

RightSections A-A and B-B.

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10 Restaurant

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12 Multimedia room

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14 Research centres

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19 External courtyard

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21 External terrace

22 Benefactors’ rooms

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TopInternal courtyard on the third floorwith views through to offices (ph: IB)

AbovePrecast concrete stair (ph: JC).

Above rightDown- and up-views through theForum (phs: JC, IB).

From the exterior, the building is remarkablefor introducing forms and materials that arenew to the city yet seemingly contextual. The continuous curving bands of glazingcreate ever-changing panoramas of the cityand sky. The double layering of the glazingincreases the surface’s reflectivity while theuse of narrow panes gives the elevation aperpendicular reading, as much DivinitySchool as corporate headquarters. Thebuilding’s stepping section and concretecornices align with its neighbours whileeffectively concealing the height of thestructure, which was yet another contentiousissue. The overall effect is monumental yetplayful, both alien and familiar.

Once inside, the architectural mood changes. A restrained palette of grey concrete, whiteplaster, glass and timber is skilfully whippedinto the Piranesian atrium space. Daylightpercolates throughout the building with foursmaller internal courtyards introduced at ahigher level to refract light deep into theplan. The effect is cathedral-like, with anaccompanying solemnity. The reverberantacoustic and resulting ‘burolandschaft’soundtrack of bleeping security gates andclick-clacking heels jars, however, with boththe brief and the institutional rhetoric. It makes one feel that the building wouldonly achieve its potential when filled withpeople – and not only filled but heaving.

The architect intended the Forum to be usedfor “dancing and making music”. This wouldeither require an institutional programme or a degree of informality and provisionalitythat is currently absent, and the buildingappears to lack the necessary infrastructureto host an event, from a stage to lights to rigs.To use a theatrical analogy, the Forum ispresently all front-of-house and no backstage.

An alternative reading of the space is thatit offers the kind of emptiness one expects ofan art gallery where the artist and curatorschoreograph the entire social experience.Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall – Herzog & de Meuron’s first UK project, completed in2000 – for example, is just waiting to beoccupied but requires a knowledgeable teamto see the space brought into significant use.

In terms of Oxford’s architectural precedents,BSG is a university school that is developingin reverse, and borrowing more from thecanon of the city’s monuments than itseducational buildings. In this instance, thebeginnings of the school have coincided withits architecture which, through its form, hasestablished a metaphor for the institution.

It’s then up to the school to realise itself,in part through how it uses the building as it grows. One hopes that the institution willuse the architecture to discover its ethosthrough the making of new relationships,and through the active participation of itsmembers and the public in events thatcomplete the life of the building, beyond thepassive reception of a sublime monument.

BelowAt basement level, two lecture theatresseat 160 and 80 people.

The building is heated and cooled by aground-source heat pump system, andfeatures 107 photovoltaic panels and a500-square-metre green roof. It isexpected to achieve an ‘Excellent’BREEAM rating.

BottomAbove the main entrance, the ‘windowto the world’ overlooks the entrance toSomerville College. It measures 10.5mby 3.2m – the largest double-g lazedsingle pane of g lass in Europe.

Selected suppliers& subcontractors

Design & BuildcontractorLaing O’RourkeCarpentryAC FlooringCeilingCG ReynoldsElectricalsubcontractorCrown HouseTechnologiesElevatorsKoneFacadeWaagner BiroFire GatesCoopers FireFlooring, subflooringAC FlooringMetalworkGascoyne & BeeverMobile partition wallsLondon Wall DesignTurnstilesMeesons AIToilet cubiclesSkirmett SuppliesFurnitureHouse of Finn Juhl,Vitra, Modus, Verpan, La PalmaDoorsShadboltBespoke lightingWila

Project team

ArchitectHerzog & de MeuronDesign teamJacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, AscanMergenthaler (partner in charge), John O’Mara,Marinke Boehm, Ben Duckworth, Simon DemeuseM&E engineer, lightingand acousticsHoare LeaLandscape designerTownshend LandscapeArchitectsStructural engineerPell FrischmannCost consultantEC HarrisSustainabilityconsultantAECOMFacade consultantMurphy Facade StudioPlanning consultantMontagu EvansProject managerOxford University EstatesServices, Gardiner &TheobaldSecurity consultantHorus Security ClientUniversity of Oxford