The School of Classical & Byzantine Studies - Oxford University

Not all of Oxford University is dreaming spires and college quadrangles. The site for the new classics centre was difficulty sandwiched between the back wall of the Ashmolean Museum on one side and Blackfriars College on the other. To the front are three listed buildings that conceal the wondrous new School of Classical and Byzantine Studies by van Heyningen & Haward Architects.

This might have been a small project but the incredibly difficult and ‘tight' site made this a very complex project, requiring high levels of installation skill. The feature Spruce Glulam “raked beams” that formed the sloping roof of the central atrium had to be landed by tower crane into the tight courtyard site and fixed at high and low level onto connections previously located in the adjoining concrete structure by Hatrick.