The commission for the eventual building, which is located near the main railway station, came about as a result of winning a limited competition involving a different site. The site, in Mansfield Road, had been given to the university by Merton College in 1963 on the understanding that it would not be built on in perpetuity. After the competition had taken place this became known, and, at a particularly dramatic occasion at the Sheldonian Theatre, the project was thrown out by the University congregation. Much to his credit the benefactor, Wafic Saïd, was not disillusioned and he energetically pursued alternative sites.
There were three principal reasons for the choice of the eventual site. First it was large enough to allow for future expansion; second it would help to revitalise the west end of the city; and third, and most important, its position opposite the railway station would place the school on the threshold between the outside world, represented by the station, and the introverted nature of the university. It might be noted that business schools, not unlike schools of architecture, have been accepted reluctantly into some of the older universities – Oxford University is still without a school of architecture.
The site allowed the school to create two new and important city spaces. Since the departure of the LMS station in the 1950s, the space opposite the railways station was used as a large surface car park and was certainly no celebration of arrival! The west facade of the school defines the station forecourt and clarifies it as a destination for those arriving by train. To the south the building forms a square for those arriving by car from the west along the Botley Road. This square might be understood as the equivalent of Magdalen Bridge to the east and St Giles to the north, as recognisable entrances to the University precinct. It is here the Business School has its principal entrance. This is an urban site. The school builds to its boundaries and forms its own interior world, a modern equivalent of the traditional Oxford colleges.
Facing this new public square, the school presents an accessible and balanced composition. Two projecting wings and a fully glazed facade to the entrance hall and the library above form an entrance court. A horizontal brise-soleil adds to the sense of enclosure and protects the facade from its southern exposure. The hypostyle entrance hall leads to two double-height cloisters, one open, the other closed. The two cloisters define the central courtyard (30 by 60 metres) and lead to the student common room and the walled garden beyond.
This sequence, leading from the busy world of the Botley Road to the tranquility of the school’s interior, form the essential, symmetrical and ideal armature of the school. Either side of this set-piece, the building responds more pragmatically to local conditions. To the west at ground floor a row of Harvard-style lecture rooms insulate the interior from the noise and distraction of the station forecourt. Above, single-storey courtyards are enclosed by professors’ rooms. To the east, two-storey courtyards are enclosed by seminar rooms. Service rooms are accessed directly from Rewley Road. Forming the head of the composition is the vaulted reading room of the library, positioned above the entrance hall. The central courtyard is closed by the amphitheatre which becomes part of the general circuit of circulation at first floor level.
Business schools have many small rooms and a few large common rooms and lecture theatres. The character of the school depends on how these various rooms are connected. The need for chance encounters between students when “breaking out” from lectures and seminars suggests a peripatetic pattern; to this end circulation in its various forms – cloister/courtyard, staircase and hall – become an extension of teaching. The design of the building is therefore generous with horizontal and vertical movement. The net-to-gross ratio is deliberately high.
The building is built of brick with powder-coated grey aluminium doors and windows. Limestone is used sparingly to denote the relative importance of the elevations. The inclined roofs, concealed behind parapets, are clad in zinc. The exposed and included roof to the Rewley Road elevation, with its lean-to shed, emphasises its service role. The special and visible silhouettes of the tower and the vaulted library roof are clad in copper.