img(height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=2939831959404383&ev=PageView&noscript=1")

Words:
Jan-Carlos Kucharek
Credit: Oxford University Museum of Natural History

If you wanted to see scales in Oxford you’ve always had to walk through its Museum of Natural History to reach the anthropological oddities of the Pitt Rivers Museum beyond. But you needn’t have gone so far. Above your head in the Museum of Natural History’s main hall, its Irish architects Deane and Woodward were, back in 1861, making their own scales – 8,500 diamond-shaped glass tiles for its roof. Now, as part of the building’s £2m refurbishment, which includes the leaking roof, architect Purcell has used the 500cm2 tiles as a template, putting 10mm Pilkington Optifloat clear glass slumped in a ceramic mould to reproduce them – NOT something you’ll want to do with the contents of any bell jar in the Pitt Rivers.

 

Latest

25 March 2025 from 9 am

RIBAJ Spec Design for Sustainability Webinar

Design spaces that fuel creativity and innovation, bid for a place on a modern-methods-of-construction framework, reconfigure an 1813 courthouse - some of the latest architecture contracts and competitions from across the industry

Latest: Science museum galleries

Amid the hyper-generalist era generative AI is ushering in, architects can be specialists maximising their social value and pushing for transformative change, argues Muyiwa Oki

In the AI era, architects can be experts pushing for transformative change, argues Muyiwa Oki

O’Donnell + Tuomey has created a striking form for the dance organisation at the emerging East Bank cultural complex in London's Olympic Park

O’Donnell + Tuomey has created a striking building for the dance organisation

Tasked with extending a home in a south London conservation area, ROAR resisted the temptation to mirror the existing architecture and opted for sustainable oak and a green roof

For a south London home extension, ROAR resisted the temptation to mirror the existing architecture and opted for sustainable materials