The project was a design competition. The brief: - Breathe life into a dilapidated Grade II* listed building, the library it housed and Longwall Quadrangle, in which it sits. - Be accessible to the disabled. - Be acoustically and thermally sound. - Triple previous provision, with 120 readers. - Resonate sensitively with the 500 year old building continuum. - Meet contemporary needs. - Provide beautiful, varied, state-of-the-art accommodation. - Be environmentally sound. - Build to last, flexibly for future change. Method of Construction Buckler’s single hall, 1851 schoolhouse was converted into a library by Gilbert Scott in 1930. Part of an overall Longwall Quadrangle development, it was a basic conversion. Scott added picturesque flowerbeds to the entrance, a basement and floor, though the latter cut awkwardly across windows. This was all removed. Over 100 bodies from a 12th C cemetery were exhumed and excavation carefully managed with unusually poor ground-bearing capacity and high water-table. We added: - A concrete framed lower level, forming the entrance and a reading room, with extra space beneath the Buckler Building, accessed via a ramped, stepped outside study space. - A steel framed, oak clad building within the building. Materials Clipsham stone cladding, externally and internally. Render internally for water protection. Biodiverse green roof with lead clad rooflights. Renewed Cotswold slate roof. Oak joinery. Planning The case for change was based on historic research, college needs, revitalisation of cityscape and college; and energy conservation. Timetable & Budget Enabling contracts with pre-construction planning de-risked the project, which was on budget and agreed timescales. Society Fully accessible, daylit, and tactile, the building provides unique individual workplaces and new ways of working inside and out. Designed to be read from overlooking windows, it reinforces the quadrangle while cutting through it, “it is quietly radical” Hugh Pearman.