Sinclair Knight Merz provided the structural and civil engineering design for the new residential accommodation at St. Catherine’s College in Oxford.
The subject of a design competition, this project comprised the creation of additional student accommodation adjoining the Grade 1 listed 'Jacobsen' college buildings. Great care was taken in the design of the fabric to develop a language of simple masonry and exposed concrete planes sympathetic to the original detailing, yet unashamedly contemporary.
The involvement of SKM demonstrates our skills in the design of educational facilities, residential accommodation and applying innovative architectural design for a project adjacent to historic buildings.
Phase 2 of St. Catherine’s College comprises of 132 study bedrooms together with a new porters lodge incorporating the four seminar rooms. The study bedrooms are clustered around internal staircases thereby reducing the circulation to each block. The staircases and related pantries are transparent affording views towards Headington as a counterpoint to the solidity of the study bedrooms. Cellular arrangement of concrete fins/brie solie affords solar shading and at the heart of each residential pavilion a glass lantern light brings natural light into the internal shower rooms.
The main structural frame to the study bedroom blocks consists of load bearing blockwork crosswall construction with precast and insitu concrete composite floor units. The facades facing into the internal courtyard are cantilevered at first floor level. This is achieved by insitu concrete cross walls acting as deep beams between first floor and second floor level acting in conjunction with the first and second floor plates.
The primary structural frame to the lodge pavilion is a combination of insitu and precast reinforced concrete. The roof and upper floor construction consists of 2-way spanning reinforced concrete slabs supported by insitu reinforced concrete walls or downstand beams. The reinforced concrete walls in turn act as deep beams spanning between isolated columns between ground and first floor level. The full height timber louvre panels held off the full height glazing provides solar shading to the seminar rooms at first and second floor level.
The project received a Commendation in the Civic Trust Awards.