AT HOME
BEECROFT QUAD
Tell me about the brief for the
project?
We started work on the project back in
2010 and I have been involved since 2011.
The brief comprised two distinct areas;
the design for a new Quad that links the
Beecroft building to the wider science area
of Oxford University with a landmark Blue
Atlantic Cedar tree planted in the 1880’s,
and design for the wider public realm
between the CL2 site itself, Parks Road
and the Grade II Registered University
Parks, which is adjacent to the site, and
includes a new connection into University
Parks on Parks Road. The building
comprises the deepest basement in Oxford
at 16m deep, comprising high specification
laboratories.
How did you answer that brief?
Our design approach for the landscape
looked to respond to the new Physics
building, the existing Lindemann and
Martin Wood buildings and the wider
context of the Grade 1 Listed Keble
College buildings opposite the site
with landscape materials specified
to complement the built form. The
inspiration for the design of the Beecroft
Quad was taken from the Higgs boson
model which was in response to the
building use for experimental and
theoretical physics, resulting in a
landscape that provides a valuable,
usable amenity space for building users
and a buffer to the busy Parks Road. The
impressive Cedar tree remains the focal
point of the square with the European
granite paving installed as a porous paving
system to allow air and water through to
the tree roots.
How did you research the design for
the project?
The design concept was informed by
the building use for experimental and
theoretical physics. We undertook a lot of
research into various aspects of quantum
science and the fundamental laws of
nature, with the plan layout drawing
inspiration from the Higgs boson model,
prior to observation of the creation of a
new particle in 2012 in the Large Hedron
Collider, where in the concept design the
Cedar tree became the centre of model.
November 2018 | Landscape Insight