Wolfson College

Wolfson College is a Grade II listed building of reinforced concrete construction built as a single project on gently sloping land between the banks of the Cherwell and the late 19th and early 20th century detached houses of North Oxford. The main buildings opened in 1974 and accommodate approximately 180 residents, with communal facilities for around 850 college and common room members.

Structure and Materials

The college is built on piled foundations using reinforced concrete blocks, with brick cross-walls to the residential accommodation and in-situ concrete columns where the ground floor remains open. The administrative block is supported on circular pre-cast columns finished in bush-hammered white calcinated flint aggregate. The dining hall features a pyramidal roof with pre-cast facing panels fixed to a secondary framework of in-situ concrete beams and columns. Flat roofs are finished in asphalt, while sloping roofs are clad in lead.

In-situ floors are cast against pre-cast fascia edge shutter units of grey granite aggregate, providing an even finish to the elevations. The ends of cross walls are clad with grey pre-cast granite-faced units supporting white concrete handrails to the balcony balustrades. Back walls of the covered ways and walls to the penthouses are white-painted blockwork. The family maisonettes are of painted blockwork. The podium supporting the two-storey family houses has brick paviors and a robust balustrade surrounding 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. Throughout the building, chestnut is used for doorframes, skirtings, cornices and finishes, while principal interiors feature chestnut-lined doors.

Plan and Layout

The college is arranged in blocks laid out around two quadrangles or courts, with spurs extending down the slope towards the Cherwell, where it 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, dining hall, 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 this court, 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, with 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 forming the ground floor of the main court. Paths lead to a single-span arched bridge over the River Cherwell, constructed of precast concrete panels and a slender steel balustrade, which gives views back to the college over lawns backed by planting and provides the final point to the fluid progression through the building.

Interior

A marble-clad stairwell and stairs, a generous bequest from Lord Wolfson, rise from the south-east corner of the main court, giving access to the dining hall, seminar room and common room, and the upper level of the common room and internal corridor serving the seminar rooms. The dining hall is square on plan with a pyramidal roof lit by narrow clerestorey windows. It is linked to the adjacent seminar room by sliding doors. The walls and doors of both are lined in chestnut boarding which continues into the open, pyramidal dining hall roof.

The double-height library is a long narrow top-lit space lined with moveable shelves and individual study carrels, again lined in chestnut, laid out on two levels with a gallery on one side. The single common room is also on two levels linked by an internal stair with a steel balustrade.

The former buttery, occupying the western side of Tree Court, is a small irregularly shaped space with exposed columns and ceiling beams, served by a very small kitchen area, with glazed screen and doors overlooking the court.

Offices are set on the northern and eastern sides of the main court, some with views overlooking the river. Much of the accommodation has been modernised to comply with health and safety standards and provision of disabled access, but a proportion of the flatlets retain their original flush-panelled entrance doors and internal partitions and fittings.

Historical Context and Design Philosophy

In accordance with its egalitarian principles, reflected in the title of President, Wolfson College has no high table and a single suite of common rooms. 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 than the cranked plan originally designed by the architects in conjunction with the landscape. According to Philip Powell, the style was generated by the plan. To complement the relative informality and fluidity within the plan, carefully measured materials and finishes in muted colours provide an even finish to the elevations, which are set out on a rigid grid within a common aesthetic of white and grey concrete, originally punctuated by colourful curtains, while tilted glazed balconies reflect the trees and sky.

The college has been extended since 1992 in a series of detached blocks to the north of the original college. These later buildings are not included in the listing.