Holywell Ford Lane, Oxford
March 2011, Oxford
Claridge Architects have recently won a bid to design a new student halls of residence in partnership with McLaren Property Ltd. Merton College require 345 additional student rooms on a site approx 1.3ha on a large open area adjacent to the river Cherwell, approximately 2km to the north east of Oxford.
The heavily wooded site has been earmarked by the local planning authority as an ideal location for student accommodation.
Our approach was to adopt the classical language of the quad that is abundant within medieval university cities such as Oxford and Cambridge and to reinterpret this typology in a modern way.
Chamfers, and punctures into the volume of the building allow for protected views across Oxford to be maintained, whilst offering the new residents superb views of the deer park and locally listed buildings.
Three separate quads are a nod to the arrangement of Merton College and are a seemingly natural progression of the evolution of the quad in Oxford. Materially, the building echoes the vernacular of Oxford with limestone being used to clad the building. As the building ages the warm tone of the stone will sit harmoniously with the wooded site, imbuing the proposal with the a feeling of timeliness.
