Cohen Quadrangle, Exeter College, Oxford

This student accommodation and teaching building by Alison Brooks Architects is a bold and lively addition to the Oxford college typology

Cohen Quadrangle, Exeter College, Oxford Credit: Nick Hufton

Alison Brooks Architects for Exeter College, Oxford
Contract value: £29,250,000
GIA: 5,040 m²
Cost per m²: £5,804

An S-shaped building that accommodates a complex brief on a constrained site in a conservation context with ambition and vigour. The clear diagram is designed around a rich spatial sequence at ground floor. This is apparent upon arrival, with a picture window to an outdoor courtyard and amphitheatre, and a hard-to-resist view through a glazed CLT arcade.

The journey through the linear site leads to the ‘Learning Commons’ connecting to both courtyards. Another theatrical arcade – this time in concrete – leads to an event room, with its dramatic ‘scoopy’ roof that channels a band of south light onto the north wall. The lower ground floor includes a triple-height café facing back onto the amphitheatre, and an archive. Stacked above this are three to four storeys of living and learning. Extended mansard roofs are defined by a two-tone chequerboard pattern of stainless steel rainscreen shingles. The project is a bold and lively addition to the Oxford college typology.