Cooke
Fawcett

2022

Somerville College,

Invited competition to create a new university building for Somerville College, Oxford, helping to enhance the educational provisions within the College and complete the architectural perimeter of the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter.

Building for health

This is a building designed to support the health and well-being of its occupants, offering plentiful light, air, views, greenery, connection and sanctuary.

The sustainable, timber-framed, terracotta-clad building aspires to the four founding principles of the College - Resilience, Inclusivity, Sustainability and Excellence. Our proposal for the RISE Building combines low embodied energy design with a dynamic form that is both confident and respectful of its surroundings.

Connected spaces

Shaped by its context, and responding to its neighbours, the building provides connected spaces for teaching, learning and community, including public and private terraces that offer vistas of the Quarter’s statement buildings - including the Blavatnik School of Government, on which our directors previously worked.