Oxford Hall Brings a Touch of Class to Industrial Area
St George’s Gate, a new hall of residence designed by Marcus Beale Architects for St Peter’s College, Oxford restores a semi-industrialised corner of the city to the more salubrious architectural fold of the university. This new accommodation provides 33 new study bedrooms, a common room and kitchen. The building sits on Quaking Bridge above the remains of a medieval wall and adjoining Castle Tower.
Structure
Piled foundations support a reinforced waterproof tank with a stainless-steel plate lip below the bottom storey window sills. This takes the weight of the new load-bearing masonry wall.
Design
Marcus Beale’s design, which draws on the eighteenth-century gabled houses that occupied the site, has all the components of traditional Oxbridge college buildings - a forbidding street facade, an entrance courtyard and a more open facade facing the water.
Detail
The Mill Stream elevation incorporates subtle detailing to reduce the impact of its three storeys. This includes recessed windows which diminish in width as the storeys rise. The bridge elevation is “softened” by small windows with fixed side panels in blue glass. The difficult junction where the building joins the wall of the Castle Tower is...
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Oxford Hall Brings a Touch of Class to Industrial Area
St George’s Gate, a new hall of residence designed by Marcus Beale Architects for St Peter’s College, Oxford restores a semi-industrialised corner of the city to the more salubrious architectural fold of the university. This new accommodation provides 33 new study bedrooms, a common room and kitchen. The building sits on Quaking Bridge above the remains of a medieval wall and adjoining Castle Tower.
Structure
Piled foundations support a reinforced waterproof tank with a stainless-steel plate lip below the bottom storey window sills. This takes the weight of the new load-bearing masonry wall.
Design
Marcus Beale’s design, which draws on the eighteenth-century gabled houses that occupied the site, has all the components of traditional Oxbridge college buildings – a forbidding street facade, an entrance courtyard and a more open facade facing the water.
Detail
The Mill Stream elevation incorporates subtle detailing to reduce the impact of its three storeys. This includes recessed windows which diminish in width as the storeys rise. The bridge elevation is “softened” by small windows with fixed side panels in blue glass. The difficult junction where the building joins the wall of the Castle Tower is achieved by sloping the roof line and switching to a contemporary design idiom. The common-room interior is dominated by the exposed wall of the tower. Floor-to-ceiling glazing overlooks the Mill Stream and opens onto a balcony. The roofing is in patent glazing, and a box gutter takes up the irregularities in the ancient stonework. Balconies in galvanised steel are contemporary.
Variety
An irregular wedge-shaped plan means the students’ rooms vary in size and shape. The fitted beech-veneered furniture is Polish. En-suite shower/WC pods come from France. Corridor walls provide access cupboards to services in the rooms and give depth to individual doorways.
Delivery
The commission for St George’s Gate was secured by TEAM services. Steve Bagland, an architect and design manager, at TEAM introduced Beale to the project. They had worked together before, ensuring the success of a particularly satisfactory architect-led design and build scheme.’
Deborah Singmaster, The Architects Journal
7 December, 1995
Environmental sustainability
In 1998 St George’s Gate was assessed for energy conservation and client satisfaction in use by Sue Roaf’s unit at Oxford Brookes University. Of the seven modern student accommodation buildings studied it was best in both energy efficiency and user satisfaction. The heating strategy includes a heated upper ground floor slab, and highly controlled individual heaters in the student rooms. The building relies heavily but not exclusively on natural day light and ventilation.
Related link:
Sustainability
Awards
Highly Commended:
Oxford Civic Trust 1996, for contribution to the character of Oxford.
Brick Design Awards 1996, for Excellence in Housing – under 50 units.
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