Philips Building, School of Oriental and African Studies

The Philips Building at the School of Oriental and African Studies

The Philips Building is a eight-storey library building that closes the southern end of Woburn Square. Designed as a library to house a collection that at the time of construction comprised half a million books (now grown to over a million), it also accommodates teaching rooms and offices. The building was conceived so that the leafy trees and late-Georgian terraces surrounding the square would be visible and appreciated from within it.

Structure and Materials

The building is constructed with a reinforced concrete frame of in situ concrete and interlocking structural pre-cast concrete panels finished with white cement and Ballidon limestone aggregate, given a grit-basted finish. The windows are predominantly horizontal sliding sashes with aluminium and bronze anodised finish, set back from the precast panels.

Exterior Design

The Philips Building has no external ceremonial entrance of its own; access was always through the listed Holden block. It follows a pavilion plan with nine bays on each of its four facades and features set-back corners on the four lower storeys. The roofs are flat, with a series of diagonally-arranged north-facing roof lights hidden from external view. The central library dominates the plan and projects on three floors, with a set-back range of academic offices and classrooms (totalling 220 separate rooms) above. The ground floor originally had projecting balconies or terraces, but these were glazed in on the north and east elevations around 2007 by John McAslan and Partners. A service moat surrounds the building to provide light to the basement levels, with a delivery entrance on the west side.

Interior

The building's principal feature is the central, top-lit library, which is naturally lit through a diagonally-set grid of slender concrete ceiling beams. The library comprises three levels of concrete-fronted balconies. On the lower floors, rooms lead off to provide study and tutorial space, with computer areas now occupying the centre of the lower level. Reading areas extend into the former terraces, now integrated into the library's interior and including a mezzanine level divided by concrete fins. Concrete partitions within the stacks frame openings whilst supporting the floors. Two original concrete book counters survive: the book issue counter on the lower level and the book return counter, now isolated in a room on the ground floor. The main full-height library stair features a concrete parapet with a metal tubular hand rail, currently painted red though the original colour requires confirmation. The concrete in both the main stair and the stair outside the library, which is nestled into a concrete service core, displays a fair-faced horizontal close boarded finish. A further stair from the ground floor downwards was added near the lifts by John McAslan and Partners around 2000. The upper corridors, wrapping around the central library, largely retain their original simple grooved timber doors and architraves, and some original cork floors remain. The original arrangement with a window at the end of each corridor largely persists, though some temporary rooms have been added, blocking light and views. The toilets were refurbished in 2009. A lecture hall with slatted wooden wall covering occupies the lower ground floor. The original architectural model for the building is displayed in a case in the basement.