Schwarzman Centre | Hopkins Architects

Oxford, providing a unique mix of state-of-the-art academic teaching facilities for students and staff at the University of Oxford together with a world-class centre for the arts, open to all.

The Centre brings together in one exceptional site seven faculties of Oxford University’s internationally recognised Humanities Division, alongside the Institute for Ethics in AI, the Internet Institute, the new Bodleian Humanities Library, and a series of dynamic spaces for the presentation of a cutting-edge public programme across the full range of music, dance, theatre, film, visual arts and new technologies. These spaces will include a 500-seat concert hall, a 250-seat theatre, a cinema and black box performance lab, a white box exhibition space, a recital hall, a museum for the renowned Bate Collection of historic musicalinstruments, a learning centre for schools and public engagement, a café, coffee bar and a bar.

The ambitious 25,300 square metre development, designed by the leading British architects Hopkins Architects, is the first of the University’s buildings to purposefully integrate teaching facilities and publicly accessible performance and exhibition spaces. It is not only an exemplary new architectural landmark for Oxford, but also an outstanding example of the highest standards of environmental sustainability as the largest building in England built to Passivhaus standards.

Location

The Schwarzman Centre will establish a major new cultural hub in the heart of Oxford’s fast developing Radcliffe Observatory Quarter for students, staff and the public. Situated to the north of the city’s centre between Woodstock Road and Walton Street, the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter is the University’s transformation of a 10-acre site, which formerly housed the Radcliffe Infirmary Hospital. Since 2009, the site has undergone an extensive masterplan to develop a vibrant academic community with opportunities for collaboration through shared research and social space, and added benefits to the local community.

Located opposite the neo-classical, Grade I listed Radcliffe Observatory at Green Templeton College, the Schwarzman Centre sits alongside the Andrew Wiles Building, designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects to house the Mathematical Institute (opened in 2013), and the Blavatnik School of Government, designed by Herzog & de Meuron (opened in 2015).

The Schwarzman Centre will create an important new addition to the existing cultural corridor which extends to the south-west, towards the Oxford train station and central bus station at Gloucester Green, and incorporates Oxford University Press, the Ashmolean

Photography: Hufton + Crow and David Levene