TECTONICS: A Building for Earth Sciences at Oxford

Description

Tectonics: A Building for Earth Sciences at Oxford documents the design and building of an ambitious architectural project for the Department of Earth Sciences at Oxford University, by a team including Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Pell Frischmann, Hoare Lea, Laing O’Rourke and EC Harris. The book brings together both design and client teams to explain the story of the project, its context and commission, describing in detail the architectural minutiae of the building.
The book charts the building’s progress from a time when the Department’s hub was accommodated in an inappropriate mixture of buildings that, despite being unsuitable for their purpose of housing modern scientific research, created a strong collaborative ethos and spirit amongst its affiliated academics; it was this spirit and sense of belonging, as well as the need for a ground-breaking research and teaching facility, which became central to the design of the project. Located in the University’s Science Area—sitting in a confined site in close proximity to numerous listed buildings— the project was intended not only to meet its functional and academic remit, but also to signal to the wider public the work, interests and concerns of its patrons and users. Tectonics highlights the building’s most interesting features, including the ‘narrative wall’—acting as the public face for the department—and the atrium ‘hinge’ which conjoins the laboratory and office wings.
Tectonics: A Building for Earth Sciences at Oxford features numerous contextual essays by individuals involved in the project, as well as critical texts on the building’s architecture.

CONTENTS

• John Hood: Foreword

Section I: Appraisal

• Hugh Pearman: An architectural appreciation

Section II: The department

• Philip England: The view from here
• Morley van Sternberg: A snapshot of the old department
• Everyone’s an earth scientist
• Stephen Hesselbo: An essay in stone

Section III: Developing a Design

• Chris Wilkinson: The Oxford condition
• Stafford Critchlow: No stone unturned
• Ian Durbin and Keith Horsley: Earth, water, fire and air

Section IV: Delivering the building

• Mike Wigg: Notes from a conversation
• Mike Morris: Realising the project
• David Sivyer: Behind the envelope

Appendices

• Project Team
• Facts and figures
• Contributors’ biographies
• Wilkinson Eyre Architects
• Laing O’Rourke
• Hoare Lea

142 pages, color ills / 22 x 28 cm / English