Heritage Unlocked - Flipbook - Page 51
A college campus of the future
Naila Yousuf
‘Together,
architecture,
landscape,
sustainability
and craft come
together to create
a 21st century
college campus’
The Norham Gardens development for
St Edmund Hall brings together new
student accommodation, ecological
renewal, sustainability and craft within
a highly sensitive historic setting. The
project reimagines the existing site
through a combination of new
Passivhaus-certified buildings and a
remodelled Victorian villa set within a
diversely planted landscape. Ambitious
environmental targets are reconciled
within the sensitivities of a Victorian
conservation area in north Oxford.
Addressing a long-standing shortage
of College-owned student
accommodation, the development
provides 127 study bedrooms and
enables St Edmund Hall to move
significantly closer to housing all
undergraduates for the duration of their
studies while also moving the College
towards net-zero. Previously, many
students were required to compete in
the private rental market, often at a
significant financial cost. Study
bedrooms within the completed
development are now allocated through
a democratic ballot system, reinforcing
the College’s commitment to access,
inclusion, and diversity.
The locale is defined by large Gothic
Revival and Arts and Crafts villas set
within generous gardens, with a strong
sense of openness, and greenery. These
villas were formerly domestic, but many
are now owned by academic
institutions. Wright & Wright’s
approach responds carefully to this
context, revealing the original Victorian
villa by removing later additions and
salvaging existing fabric.
Three new buildings constructed
from structural cross-laminated timber
(CLT) reinterpret the historic language
of the neighbouring Victorian villas
with chimneys, slate roofs, cross gables,
decorative stone and brick accents.
Building heights step down towards the
rear gardens, echoing the hierarchy
between the villas and ancillary garden
structures, while preserving long views
towards University Parks.
A college campus of the future
Within the campus, accommodation
is fully accessible and organised to
foster both intimacy and community.
‘Clusters’ of six to eleven bedrooms
share kitchens and dining spaces and
encourage social cohesion, while a
variety of shared indoor spaces and
landscaped ‘outdoor rooms’ are
distributed across the site, allowing
students to move between settings for
study, socialising, and reflection.
Flexible layouts and informal outdoor
areas support evolving ways of working
and living, giving students agency in
how they inhabit the campus.
The new buildings’ high performing
envelopes minimise energy demand,
while air source heat pumps and biosolar green roofs further reduce
operational energy use. The Victorian
villa has been upgraded with new
double-glazed windows, improved
airtightness, and breathable internal
insulation. The landscape strategy
delivers a substantial biodiversity net
gain (88%) through new planting, green
roofs, rainwater harvesting and an
ecology pond, while preserving mature
trees and reinstating gaps along the
street frontage to restore the area’s
characteristic openness.
Material choice is fundamental in
anchoring the new architecture within
its historic setting. The primary facing
material is a handmade light red multi
brick, produced using traditional
hand-throwing processes. Each brick is
unique, with variations in texture and
colour that reflect the heavyweight
character of neighbouring Victorian
buildings. Complementing the
brickwork are handmade clay tiles, each
bearing the faint handprint of its maker
on its underside - like a signature reinforcing the project’s emphasis on
craft and high quality materials.
Together, architecture, landscape,
sustainability and the art of making
come together to create a modern college
campus that responds to both the
climate emergency and its exacting
historic context.
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