Fred Pilbrow lead the KPF Architecture project for the award-winning proposals for St Anne’s College Oxford in the North Oxford Conservation area.

The Ruth Deech Building creates new residential and teaching accommodation on a restricted site between the Grade II listed Hartland House by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and a terrace of Victorian villas acquired by the college in the 1960s. The project is resonant with challenges faced by Imperial College London – to provide new space to a high quality where availability of land is limited and to deliver improvements to the public realm.

The building is arranged as a large terrace cranked at its centre. The fracture establishes an arrival court against Hartland House aiming to mark the main entrance to the college from Woodstock Road.

The ventilation strategy was carefully designed to reduce energy consumption. A constant low level air supply to the bedroom is tempered through the use of heat exchangers to reduce heating costs. This and the shower room extract combat the condensation which is a common problem in student accommodation. The teaching spaces are naturally ventilated and use underground air ducts which provide natural ground cooling in the summer months. The materials were carefully selected; the Bath stone for the facades, chosen to match that of Hartland House, was quarried locally, reducing transit costs and emissions. The timber infill panels used Red Lauro, a managed and sustainable hardwood.