Zaha Hadid Architects has revealed designs for an extension to the Middle East Centre at St Anthony’s College, Oxford...
The centre occupies two historic buildings in a Victorian suburb, and Hadid’s scheme aims to link the pair.
Set over three storeys, the Softbridge Building, which is at a pre-planning stage, is clad in composite glass, which can take a variety of finishes, and will be fabricated off site.
A model of the scheme, which was exhibited before Christmas, met with concern from the Oxfordshire Architectural & Historical Society and the Oxford Civic Society. They questioned whether the design was appropriate for the context.
The scheme features reception and exhibition areas on the ground floor, accessed via a semi-sunken forecourt. The main reading room will be on the first floor, along with the storage area for the library, while the library itself will be on the second floor.
A basement area will boast further storage space and a state-of-the-art lecture hall.
The design also features a series of skylights to increase natural daylight in the library, while the south-facing facade of the archive reading room has fritted glass windows which control solar gain. bdonline
4 Comments
love this one. much better than the one from a couple of days ago.
totally agree.
sw, i'm curious why you feel that way. the way the squooshy tube hits the existing structure is incredibly awkward (not to mention that's going to be some expansion joint detail!), though there's still an awful lot to like here.
while an expansion joint is certainly a potential place for this one to get klunky, it's likely to be resolvable by her associated architect - even if that means that the tube sits back from the structure and leaves a reveal at the chimney and the actual connection to the building is much more conventional and back in the shadow.
my reason for liking this one better is that the skin overall looks to be much more easily controlled. i simply think this one will be realized in a more convincing way. the one the other day had a VERY complicated skin (note my comment there about h&dm) which i'm not convinced zaha can pull off as convincingly. this is more her thing: slick, smooth, taut.
i've been wrong before.
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