100 Buildings 100 Years

1980: Keble College Extension, Oxford

Status: Listed Grade II*
Type: Education
Architect: Ahrends, Burton and Koralek
Location: Keble College, Oxford OX1 3PG

In the 1970s, with modernism prematurely declared dead, architects had to grope a bit to find a new direction. There were nascent high tech, early postmodernism, and stabs at returning to ‘vernacular’ architecture. ABK, and especially their Keble building, offered a way that was none of the above. With its satisfyingly solid, castle-like brick walls, and sort-of quadrangle, it refers to the past, but then it brings in curves and slopes of dark glass.

There’s a bit of James Stirling in its geometries, and its historic/modern combinations, but realised in a distinctive way. It is a warm, embracing building, with its honeyed brick and half-sunk walkways. It is also a nice way of complementing the overwhelming polychromy of Butterfield’s buildings for Keble, while also standing up to them.

All that said, a qualifying note from someone who has lived and worked there: ‘The proportions are extremely poky. The materials aren’t very nice. My room was either pitch dark or uncomfortably bright/boiling hot depending on the position of the sun.’

by Rowan Moore

Listing description