Foster + Partners plans Oxford chapel conversion for Larry Ellison

British studio Foster + Partners is developing plans to convert an old chapel in Oxford into a restaurant and bar for the Ellison Institute of Technology research campus.

Named The Chapel & Lodge, the project is hoped to become a meeting place for scientists working at the upcoming Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) research facility, also designed by Foster + Partners.

The restaurant will be located close to the studio's first-ever project involving a public house, which it is also carrying out for EIT – the institute founded by US tech billionaire Larry Ellison, the world's sixth-richest man.

Restaurant will "gather some of Oxford's greatest minds"

The Chapel & Lodge is currently at the planning application stage. If approved, it will involve the disused 19th-century chapel being converted for the second time, after it was transformed into offices in the late 1980s.

An adjoining lodge, which was once a home and later the headquarters of a wildlife charity, would also be overhauled and used as an entrance and bar area.

Both buildings were historically part of Littlemore Hospital, a historic asylum.

In the planning application, EIT said the restaurant would be used to "host and gather some of Oxford's greatest minds".

"The Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) aims to reunite and restore both buildings into a cohesive public destination: a place that brings people together through shared culinary experiences," said the institute.

"Located at the periphery of the campus and detached from the workplace environment, the buildings offer a unique opportunity to host and gather some of Oxford's greatest minds to share a drink, enjoy a meal, and connect."

The visuals show the chapel and lodge connected by a glazed walkway, which folds around a garden.

While the lodge is planned to contain an intimate bar and entrance area, the chapel will host the main restaurant space and a large bar, described by EIT as a "vibrant dining destination".

Foster + Partners is carrying out the project in collaboration with heritage studio Donald Insall Associates.

It is the latest scheme that Foster + Partners is designing for EIT alongside the research campus, with another being the grade II-listed Eagle and Child pub renovation.

According to the planning application, The Chapel & Lodge will share "a common design language" with the Eagle and Child pub.

Dating back to 1840, the public house is best known as the meeting spot of the Inklings – a literary group including writers JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis.

Design planned to feel "unmistakably EIT"

"While not considered listed, the Chapel and Lodge share with the Eagle and Child an ambition to create meaningful public-facing spaces," EIT said.

"Though each offers a distinct experience, they are unified through a common design language and material palette, allowing visitors to recognise them as unmistakably EIT spaces."

The EIT research campus is expected to be completed next year on the site of Oxford Science Park and the former Littlemore Hospital. It will comprise 28,000 square metres of laboratories and education space.

Foster + Partners was founded in 1967 by British architect Norman Foster. Elsewhere, it is also developing the Two World Trade Center skyscraper in New York and a vast aerotropolis in Angola.

The visuals are by Foster + Partners, courtesy of EIT. 

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