40TH PIRAN DAYS OF ARCHITECTURE
NOVEMBER 2023
On the 25th November Níall will be giving a lecture at the 40th Piran Days of Architecture in Slovenia. The theme for the event was Context. Concept. Consensus. The weekend conference is also tied in with the Piranesi International Architecture Award of which Níall will also be judging. National and student selectors will nominate 55 completed architectural projects from 11 Central European countries and 38 student projects from 19 architectural faculties, which will be presented at a joint exhibition.
CATHERINE HUGHES BUILDING PLANNING APPROVAL
MAY 2017
Our new student accommodation scheme for Somerville College, has been awarded planning approval unanimously by Oxford City Council. The project, known as the Catherine Hughes Building, will provide 68 bedrooms, allowing the College to accommodate all their undergraduates on site. This is our third building for Somerville College, further to our work on the ROQ student housing and the extension to the Philip Dowson designed Wolfson building.
The new building has a frontage on to Walton Street, with a Graduate Reading Room at ground floor level. The use of red brick will reflect the neighbouring buildings, with articulated brickwork elements around generous windows to provide a rhythm to the façade. Framed setbacks at third floor level allow the new building to align with key levels on the adjacent Penrose Building and to provide variety to the roof line. Internally, bedrooms are arranged in to clusters with kitchens and circulation spaces utilising direct and borrowed natural light and forming focal points for social activity.
Enabling works, involving the demolition of existing buildings, are due to commence in the next few months, with the main construction expected to start on site at the beginning of 2018.