The west of Oxford, once characterised as the more utilitarian side of town, has been transformed almost single-handedly by the advent of the Saïd Business School. Two new urban squares have been introduced – a station forecourt defined by phases one and two, and Frideswide Square, establishing a threshold to Oxford for those travelling from the west. Apart from helping to further enclose the station forecourt, the new phase two building protects the school garden from the noise and distraction of the railway opposite.
The new building – the Centre for Executive Education – is arranged as an L-shaped wall of small rooms enclosing larger teaching rooms and social spaces. The smaller rooms align the site boundary and the larger rooms relate to the garden and the interior of the site. A central corridor on three floors is connected by a directional staircase, the equivalent of a diagonal atrium in that it spatially connects the various levels, giving a sense of orientation.
On the ground floor a cloister gives access to the lecture halls, which also connects directly to phase one. From here a stepped ramp and pergola link to the first floor terrace. A spiral staircase then connects the terrace to the second floor dining balconies above.
The combination of ramp, terrace, stair and balcony establishes a series of overlapping relationships between various levels of the building to the garden and to the school as a whole. In the entrance hall, an exaggerated wainscot of white Carrara marble describes the walls, with a stone floor of grey Pietro Serena. The space is simply furnished, with an oak porter’s desk and registration table, and two Barcelona chairs (as in the entrance hall of phase one). From here, the visitor is presented with two routes: right to the cloister and lecture theatres followed by a connection to phase one, or ahead to the staircase and corridor. The stair lead to the common rooms and bar on the first floor, concluding in a pyramidal multi-purpose hall and the dining rooms on the second floor. The teaching rooms, lecture theatres and offices all follow the standard of finish in phase one, whereas the social spaces are more ambitious.
In the dining rooms, common rooms and bar the character of a gentleman’s club is the intended model. From the clubroom there are two destinations: on fine days to the terrace overlooking the garden, or via the staircase directly to the dining rooms on the floor above. The are arranged en-suite into four spaces of varying size – the large pyramidal room is designed for lectures and large dinners, the middle room for formal dining, to the south a space for informal dining, concluding in a south-facing terrace for eating outside. All three rooms have oak wall panelling, Oxford blue curtains and oak floors, and are connected by an external balcony and spiral staircase to the terrace below. The use of timber strip wall cladding was a reference to the lecture theatres in phase one, but with vertical instead of horizontal strips.
These relatively discreet ‘public’ elevations act as a foil to the more expressive ‘private’ garden elevation. Here the zigzag glazing, the ribbon of the spiral staircase connecting to the second floor balcony seen through the frame of the giant pergola and connecting to the ’embedded’ tower of big rooms are some of the elements that combine to form an elevation that is part stadium and part garden building.
The new building has created unexpected view of, and relationships to, the phase one building. When advancing up the garden ramp the stepped pyramidal tower forms a focus to the ascent to the terrace; the existing arcaded facade facing the station is seen for the first time in steep perspective from the clubroom’s first floor oriel window; and finally, from the second floor dining rooms, the roofs of the phase one act as a foreground connecting the school to the familiar profile of university spires beyond.