Wolfson College Oxford, England

Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

STRUCTURE AND MATERIALS: Blocks are of reinforced concrete on piled foundations, with brick cross-walls to the residential accommodation, and in-situ columns where the ground floor is open; the administrative block is supported on circular pre-cast columns. The dining hall has a pyramidal roof with pre-cast facing panels fixed to a secondary framework of in-situ concrete beams and columns. Flat roofs are asphalt, sloping are roofs clad in lead.

Pre-cast columns are finished in bush-hammered white calcinated flint aggregate. In-situ floors, cast against pre-cast fascia edge shutter units of grey granite aggregate, provide an even finish to the elevations, a concept also carried through in the ends of the cross walls which are clad with grey pre-cast granite-faced units which support white concrete handrails of the balcony balustrades. All provide an even finish to the elevations which vary within a common aesthetic of white and grey concrete on a rigid grid. The back walls of the covered ways and walls to the penthouses are of white-painted blockwork. The family maisonettes are of painted block-work. The podium on which the two-storey family houses sit has brick paviors and a robust balustrade which surrounds the lightwell over the nursery.

Recessed surfaces such as windows and balcony reveals are painted white. Glazing to the residential blocks is set back in anodised black aluminium window frames, behind tinted glass balconies, tilted to reflect the sky. Access balconies and walkways to the flatlets have ventilated glazed screens, some set diagonally. Marble lined principal staircase; chestnut linings and fittings to hall, seminar room and library, chestnut finishes to residential areas.

PLAN: Wolfson College sits on gently sloping land between the banks of the Cherwell, and the late-C19 and early-C20 detached houses of North Oxford. The college was built as a single project and the main buildings, which were opened in 1974, accommodated approximately 180 residents, and provided communal facilities for 850 or so members of the College and Common Room. In accordance with its egalitarian principles, reflected in the title of President, Wolfson has no high table and a single suite of common rooms. The college is arranged in blocks laid out round two quadrangles or courts, with spurs extending down the slope towards the Cherwell, where the college overlooks a lake, modelled on the bay at Portofino, with a punt harbour and island. The main court, laid out on three storeys and approached via the two storey entrance front, from Linton Road, houses the library, the dining hall and common room, seminar rooms and administrative offices. Tree Court is enclosed by two- to four-storey ranges housing the former buttery, and accommodation for married graduates. The northern side of the court, which was designed for families with children, comprises maisonettes opening onto enclosed terraces set on a podium over the nursery and car parking. Two ranges of shared residential flats for single students, lead towards the river, the westernmost range curved in accordance with Sir Isaiah Berlin's wishes. Penthouses are set over these spur ranges, where the land falls away to the river. The buildings are linked by brick-paved covered ways at ground floor and upper levels, and under colonnades which form the ground floor of the main court. Paths lead to a single span bridge over the River Cherwell, which was designed as part of the scheme and gives views back to the college over lawns backed by planting. The bridge provides the final point or full stop to the fluid progression through the building.

Isaiah Berlin, first President of the College, was keenly involved in the overall design of the college and its setting, which closely follows the profile of the village overlooking the bay at Portofino. He advocated that the curved wall of the riverside quad was more appropriate to the soft forms of the river