College Extension at Oxford University

Location: St John’s College, Oxford, England
What it is: Senior Common Room
Architects: MJP Architects (MacCormac Jamieson Prichard, London)
Structural Engineers: Price and Myers, London; Buro Happold, Bath
Glass Engineers: Dewhurst MacFarlane & Partners, London

This senior common room renovation was constructed at St. Johns College, which is one of 38 colleges, at Oxford University. A senior common room is a place for academic staff to socialize and provide services such as dining/meetings and recreation.

This structure contains sitting rooms and kitchen on the ground floor, a roof terrace, and an extended lunchroom with a server on the first floor that cantilevers and overlooks a garden. It is described as being a two story glass box, two shear walls of white reinforced concrete, and a second façade layer having oak shutters that are electrically operated. This protects the dining area from the sun, provides secrecy during a meeting, and gives the structure depth.

The roof consists of Yorkstone slab 2in.thick and rests on 7in. stainless steel point fixing. This is supported by a steel truss with 2 mm of roofing membrane, which then sits on top of 6 inches of concrete slab. Separating the extension from the existing building is a sky light as seen in the second figure below.

Roof Detail

A 6 in. stainless steel structure that starts from the roof of the building begins to form the front of the building, which consists of an outer skeleton that is made out of oak and steel. Steel round bars 12 mm thick surrounded with oak columns gives form to the resting place of electrically powered 1.8 ft. by 11.5 ft. oak shutters. These shutters are the eyelids to the 1 inch low-e solar-coated glass on the first floor. The ground floor, like the second floor, also has 6 mm of safety glass and solar coating, but consists of sliding glass doors.

Wall Section

(Credit to Detail Magazine, Vol. 2007 English Edition 2, pages: 134-137.)