Templeton College

Templeton College (Oxford Centre for Management Studies)

A college of management studies founded in 1965 and designed 1965–6 by Richard Burton of Ahrends, Burton and Koralek. The first phase was built 1967–9, the second phase in 1974, and the library was extended in 1985. The college was commissioned for Norman Leyland, the first Director, at the behest of Clifford Barclay, the first benefactor who donated both the site at Kennington and the initial building.

The building employs lightweight concrete for floors and roofs, reinforced concrete columns, 6-inch concrete block cross walls, and external walls of board-marked concrete, concrete block, glass and zinc cladding—materials selected in response to a brief for minimal maintenance.

The complex plan follows a strict tartan grid with diagonal axes. Each square unit has a column at each corner; where these columns meet, as in the centre of the library, four columns stand together, allowing flexibility of partitioning and services between them. The double-height library forms the centrepiece of the building and is reached via a long, narrow entrance with steps bisected by a central rill originally centred on an oak tree framed in composition (since replaced by a maple). A bridge links to the front range of split-level study bedrooms on three and four storeys, which are shielded from traffic noise and face inwards to a central courtyard. The roofs are flat.

The front elevation is composed as a grid, with the lowest floor recessed and the upper floor projecting, featuring regular projections for staircases. Aluminium windows, including double-glazed windows to the study bedrooms with internal louvre blinds and ventilation extract, are employed throughout. On the south side, windows to the study bedrooms form three tiers of sloping windows. The four-bay library block features aluminium glazing, much of it set back behind balconies with some infilling. A first-floor link via a concrete bridge with a central pair of piers responds to the grid. The complex entrance incorporates low walls and a seat around the tree, which orient one towards three broad tiers of steps between concrete block walls, bisected by a central rill served by a stream originally on the site. The central entrance door is at first-floor level; this entrance is crossed by a first-floor corridor which links the study bedrooms to the rest of the building. Below, to the left, a vista opens across the college gardens.

The interior is similarly complex. The library, made the centrepiece of the college to encourage its use, comprises a four-unit, double-height top-lit space that demonstrates the tartan grid particularly well, with landscaping by James Hope. Concrete balustrading surrounds the balcony all round the space. Though built in two phases, the library interior is consistent in style. Seminar and reference areas in the surrounding rooms are designed for flexibility, with partitioning designed to be movable—and this is one building where such flexibility has been successfully utilised. The study bedrooms are a particularly inspired composition. They are reached from a spinal corridor at a mezzanine level, from which stairs lead up and down to pairs of rooms on each level. Each bedroom comprises a living room and study area, with fitted desks, shelves and sofa on the south side, and stairs up or down to a bedroom area. The college was designed for mature students attending courses of originally some six months' duration, and unusually lavish provision was made for their comfort and conviviality.

The Oxford Centre for Management Studies was founded in 1965 following the success of the Oxford University Business Summer School, which had been running intensive one-month courses for middle management since 1953. A further impetus was provided by successful fund-raising by the Foundation for Management Education, which, with matching industrial and Government contributions, made grants for the foundation of business schools at London and Manchester as well as at Oxford. The site at Kennington, situated on rising land close to the noisy Oxford by-pass, and the initial building were gifts of Clifford Barclay. The first Director, Norman Leyland, had been the bursar of Brasenose College, where Powell and Moya's addition of 1959–61 is already listed. Philip Powell declined the commission in favour of Richard Burton, who had been the job architect for Brasenose. This was the second English commission for the young firm of Ahrends, Burton and Koralek, who refined the idiom established by Powell and Moya for their Oxford and Cambridge work on a more expressive grid, while acknowledging inspiration from, in particular, Frank Lloyd Wright. The firm has built seven phases for the college between 1967 and 1990; only the first two phases are included in the present listing. The central element is remarkable for its attention to flexibility and detailing, its rich textures and finishes, and its relationship to its site.