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AIAUK 2021 DESIGN AWARDS WINNER

JUNE 2021

Magdalene College Library has won in the Professional Practice Medium Sized Projects category at this year’s AIAUK Design Awards. For over 20 years, The American Institute of Architects UK Chapter Excellence in Design Awards programme has proven highly valued by architects as they confer trans-Atlantic recognition for design excellence. Professional entries are sought from UK-based architects or designers, for projects anywhere in the world, and Architects or designers based outside the UK for projects completed in the UK.

Acknowledging that architecture is a corpus of inherited ideas, Alternative Histories invited more than 80 contemporary practices in the UK and Europe to imagine an exchange with architects from the past. Each office was assigned a different drawing from the collection of Drawing Matter. The architects were then tasked with making a model that not only responded to what they saw, but envisioned an alternative future for the original drawing while adhering to the constraints of the project.

ST CROSS GROUND BREAKING

FEBRUARY 2015

Building has started on our project for St. Cross College in Oxford. It will accommodate a library, seminar rooms and 53 post-graduate rooms just behind St. Giles. Soon after excavation started, we uncovered the shrouded remains of a woman buried in 1642 during the English Civil War.  Oxford Archaeologists dated her from the coins that had been placed on her eyes. After a pause to remove the remains, the builders have started foundations around the historic walls. Completion is expected by May 2016.

A Ground Breaking Ceremony was held on the site on 27th February.   Practical Completion of the building is anticipated in May 2016. You can follow progress on site by accessing the contractor’s webcam here (un:stcrosscollege; pw:oxford)