Replacing two existing buildings, this state-of-the-art facility provides flexible work spaces and communal areas and creates a new gateway to Oxford University’s Old Road Campus. Working spaces are arranged around two principal social areas in much the same way as a traditional Oxford college building overlooks the quad at its heart, while the building’s main and secondary entrances are linked by a ‘street’ which draws a pedestrian route through the structure. A high-performance cladding system of glass and aluminium panels wraps the building, incorporating external louvres to protect against solar gain and featuring a series of solid panels which are coloured in a spectrum of greens to harmonise with a band of mature planting around the perimeter of the site. The building also incorporates highly-efficient plant which provides the required laboratory conditions while offering reduced energy consumption. The scheme was designed in collaboration with Nightingale Associates.