The architects behind the project are John McAslan + Partners, the firm also behind the award-winning design for the London King’s Cross Station restoration.
Katherine Watts, Associate at John McAslan + Partners said:
'Transforming a Victorian power station in Oxford into a new Global Leadership Centre for Saïd Business School is a strong example of the type of large-scale adaptive reuse projects that John McAslan + Partners’ have built an expertise in, and we are thrilled that the project has been recognised with the International Architecture Award. Our vision has been to harness the building’s industrial character and existing fabric, to provide a low carbon state-of-the-art educational environment with an emphasis on congregation and collaboration. A key design move has been to retain the powerful internal volume of the old turbine hall which will be transformed into an open ‘agora’ providing a vibrant collegiate meeting place at the heart of the facility. The building’s sustainable performance will also be greatly improved through employing Passivhaus principles, the installation of 229 photovoltaic panels on the roof and an air source heat pump which will put the building on course to run on zero-carbon in the future following its completion in 2024.’
The International Architecture Awards honour the best, significant new buildings, landscape architecture, and planning projects designed and/or built around the world’s leading architects, landscape architects, and urban planners.
Soumitra Dutta, Dean of Saïd Business School, said:
‘I’m delighted to see the transformation of the Osney power station, an Oxford landmark with a proud history, win such an award. It will be a world class centre for executive education that will give leaders of global business, government and civil society, access to the University’s leading academics and brightest minds. As a modern business school embedded in an iconic 900-year-old university, it is fitting for the Global Leadership Centre to be bringing together the old and the new to create something so unique and exciting, which is already receiving international recognition.
We are deeply grateful to the Saïd Foundation and Pershing Square foundation for helping to make this possible, and to former Saïd Business School Chair, Sir Howard Stringer and his wife Lady Stringer, for their contribution, and to all the alumni who have named spaces in the new building.’
Further opportunities to name spaces will continue as the project develops, allowing potential funding partners to actively engage with the centre.