A building of extraordinary elegance
Niall McLaughlin Architects for Worcester College, Oxford
Contract value: £8.9m
GIA: 846 m²
Cost per m²: £10,517
Worcester College had an urgent need for teaching facilities in one of Oxford’s most historic colleges. The result is a building of extraordinary elegance. Every space is high-ceilinged and flooded with daylight, every element is designed and crafted to the most exacting tolerances and standards, and every part fits together sweetly – from the radial brick pavers to the curved seats and huge oak doors of the auditorium up to the spaces themselves.
The centre is classical in spirit, with crisp proscenia and a slender stone stoa marching along a cricket pitch façade, but the smooth stone and glass planes and minimal detail are uncompromisingly modern. To create a building of such extraordinary elegance has taken time, unstinting application from client and procurement team, a generous donor, a building team capable of the highest levels of craftsmanship and an architectural team capable of the very highest design quality.
Regional Sustainability award sponsored by Geberit
Building of the Year Award, sponsored by Artifice Press