David Kohn Architects curves University of Oxford college building around three-sided quadrangles

London studio David Kohn Architects has completed a sinuous stone student accommodation and office tower for the Gradel Quadrangles expansion of the University of Oxford's New College.

Located in a conversation area a couple of streets away from the original college, David Kohn Architects designed the shape of Gradel Quadrangles' main building to create outdoor areas informed by the historic New College building.

Named Main Quad, the curving building contains 94 bedrooms with shared kitchens and communal study spaces for the college's undergraduate students, as well as a music performance auditorium and lobby space in the basement.

On the western side the building also contains classrooms, an assembly hall and a canteen for a boys' private school that stands alongside it.

The studio drew upon the original New College building when designing the  block. Built in 1379, the original building was the first University of Oxford college to be purposefully designed around a quadrangle – a square garden surrounded on all four sides by buildings.

A three-sided quadrangle was later added to the college with the fourth side facing a garden to give a more open appearance.

Aiming to continue this progression of opening up the quadrangle, David Kohn Architects designed a trio of three-sided quadrangles set between the curved wings of the Main Quad building and the buildings on either side.

"There is a commentary in the original quadrangles and this perception that Oxford ought to counter its appearance of being exclusive," David Kohn Architects founder David Kohn told Dezeen.

"I'd like to think architecture has a part to play in that by being more informal, more playful, and more transparent in this picturesque way, which is part of the experience of the students and people walking past," he continued. "The curving architecture gives it this sense of invitation."

David Kohn Architects also designed a 21.5-metre-tall tower on the corner of the Gradel Quadrangles site named New Warham House, which contains offices.

Both New Warham House and the Main Quad have decorative facades made from 70-millimetre-thick load-bearing stone walls, which were tied to a concrete structure.

Diamond-shaped slabs of limestone were contrasted with red sandstone, and gargoyles and grotesques depicting animals punctuate the roofline, which were designed by artist Monster Chetwynd and carved by mason Fergus Wessel.

The Main Quad has an undulating timber-frame roof topped with polygonal anodised-aluminium roof tiles.

According to Kohn, geometric lines on their exteriors were designed to enhance the sinuous shapes of the buildings, similar to the works of British painter Bridget Riley.

"The curved forms allowed us to build quite closely to lots of things without over imposing on them, and then the curved stone was given this diamond orientation because it almost increases the curvature, like Bridget Riley's drawings of straight lines that appear curved," said Kohn.

"It changes a lot as you move around it," he continued. "The scheme is very varied in its experience to offer many opportunities for delight and surprise."

Other projects completed by David Kohn Architects include a house in a converted cowshed and a home with patterned brickwork in Dorset, which was named the Royal Institute of British Architects' House of the Year for 2022.

The photography is by Will Pryce.

Project credits:

Architect: David Kohn Architects
Structural engineer: Price and Myers
M&E consultant: Skelly and Couch
Quantity surveyor: Arcadis
Project manager: Ridge
Principal designer: Oxford Architects
Main contractor: Robert McAlpine
Landscape design: Todd Longstaffe-Gowan
Artists: Eva Rothschild and Monster Chetwynd
Stonemason: Fergus Wessel
Planning consultant: Bidwells
Theatre consultant: Charcoal Blue
Stone facade contractor: Grants of Shoreditch
Timber roof specialist: Blumer Lehman
Gate fabricator: The White Wall Company

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