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The Gradel Quadrangles are New College Oxford’s mixed-use expansion: a curved contemporary quadrangle that wraps around two listed buildings while accommodating student rooms, study areas, college offices, a recital hall and facilities for the associated preparatory school. David Kohn Architects used the constrained site to rethink the traditional collegiate quad as a more open civic and landscape interface, rather than reproduce a rectangular historic enclosure.
The project opened on 13 April 2024. Sources list completion in either April or May 2024, and they publish two different floor-area figures, so those dates and measurements need to be kept distinct. Its most technically distinctive element is the roof: curved laminated-timber ribs support an irregular field of approximately 5,000 aluminium tiles positioned with augmented-reality assistance.
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What is the Gradel Quadrangles?
The Gradel Quadrangles are New College Oxford’s new buildings on land at Mansfield Road and Savile Road. Designed by David Kohn Architects, the development combines university accommodation and teaching or study space with a recital or music hall, college offices and a substantial group of rooms for the associated boys’ preparatory school.
The project is therefore more than a student-housing block. It is an extension of the college’s institutional life, with spaces for living, learning, administration, performance and school activity gathered into one architectural composition. The college describes the new quadrangles as curved forms that snake around two listed buildings; the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) presents the scheme as a contemporary extension of the collegiate-quad tradition.
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RIBA’s 2026 project information attributes 94 student bedrooms to the scheme, alongside shared study space and a recital hall. Oxford Architects’ project description adds school classrooms, dining, assembly, kitchen and play functions. Because published accommodation descriptions are not identical, the bedroom figure should be treated as RIBA’s reported count rather than a universal total for every project component.
Project snapshot
| Item | Published information |
|---|---|
| Client | New College Oxford |
| Architect | David Kohn Architects |
| Main contractor | Sir Robert McAlpine |
| Executive architect | Purcell |
| Structural engineer | Price & Myers |
| Official opening | 13 April 2024 |
| Student bedrooms | 94, according to RIBA |
| Project value | £72 million total; £54.5 million construction cost, as reported by Building Design |
Prices checked November 2026.
The project team also included Skelly & Couch (M&E), Arcadis (quantity surveyor), Ridge (project manager), Todd Longstaffe-Gowan (landscape designer), and artists Eva Rothschild and Monster Chetwynd. Grants of Shoreditch supplied the stone façade work. These roles are listed in Building Design’s project account.
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Why is the quad curved?
The curved plan is a response to both the site and the project’s ambition. New College says the buildings wind around two listed structures, while RIBA describes the result as the university’s first curved quad. Instead of forcing a new rectangle into an irregular historic setting, the plan uses a continuous sweep to negotiate existing buildings, movement routes and the relationship between college land and the surrounding city.
That geometry changes how a quadrangle works. A conventional quad is often read as a self-contained room outdoors, defined by four relatively straight walls. The Gradel Quadrangles retain the collective identity of an enclosure but loosen its edges through curvature, varied views and connections to landscape. The project submission describes an open relationship to the city and landscape; that description should be understood as a documented design intention, not as a claim about measured public access or post-occupancy behaviour.
The curve also creates a demanding construction problem. Floor plates, walls, roof ribs and façade courses cannot rely on repetitive rectangular modules. Each element has to follow a changing radius, meet adjoining components accurately and preserve the visual continuity of the whole. In this project, structural exploration and digital setting-out were used to make that complexity buildable.
How was the curved roof built?
The roof changed substantially during design development. Price & Myers reports that the early concept considered a loadbearing vaulted roof made from Catalan tiles cemented with plaster of Paris. Concrete was examined as an alternative, but the team ultimately developed a lighter timber-rib system whose geometry could be digitally controlled.
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- Develop the curved support. Curved laminated-timber ribs establish the roof’s changing profile and act as the primary repeatable components.
- Form the roof skin. The ribs were skinned with oriented strand board (OSB) and planks, creating a continuous substrate over the irregular curve.
- Coordinate the tile field. The final finish uses approximately 5,000 aluminium tiles, each shaped or selected to suit its position on the roof.
- Set out the installation digitally. Installers used a phone-based augmented-reality application to locate tile positions across the surface, translating the three-dimensional model into practical fixing information.
This sequence represents a shift from conventional tile laying to digitally shaped timber components that slot together, followed by a roof covering whose individual pieces accommodate the remaining variation. The aluminium tiles are not simply a decorative pattern applied to a regular roof; their differing shapes are part of the strategy for making a curved, non-uniform surface appear coherent.
The roofline also informs the stonework. Grants of Shoreditch describes Cove red sandstone arranged in a serrated design that traces the roof edge. The detail makes the junction between wall and roof legible from outside, rather than treating the roof as an unrelated cap.
What materials were used?
The palette combines durable masonry with manufactured components and visible craft. Building’s feature identifies Ancaster limestone as the principal stone, with red sandstone banding. David Kohn explained the colour decision in that feature: “We chose the two colours because they were complementary.”
| Element | Material or method | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Principal walls | Ancaster limestone | Provides the main masonry field and relates the extension to Oxford’s stone-building tradition. |
| Banding and roof-edge detail | Red sandstone, including Cove red sandstone in a serrated arrangement | Adds colour contrast and visually traces the roofline. |
| Structural frame and floors | Concrete frame with curved floor plates | Allows the plan to maintain its changing geometry through the building. |
| Curved roof structure | Laminated-timber ribs, OSB and plank skins | Creates a controllable support for the irregular roof surface. |
| Roof finish | Approximately 5,000 aluminium tiles of differing shapes | Accommodates the roof’s changing curvature; positions were mapped with augmented reality. |
Price & Myers describes the walls as interlocking limestone construction carried by a concrete frame. That combination separates responsibilities: the frame and curved slabs handle structural continuity, while the masonry expresses the building’s civic face and the roof finish resolves the complex upper geometry.
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How do the college, school and performance uses fit together?
The plan is mixed-use by design. RIBA identifies student bedrooms, shared study space and a recital hall. Oxford Architects records classrooms, dining, assembly, kitchen and play spaces for the preparatory school, while the college’s brief also includes offices and support areas.
Putting these uses in one development creates practical requirements beyond appearance. Student accommodation needs privacy, servicing and dependable circulation. A recital hall needs acoustic separation and controlled access. School functions require safe movement, supervision and robust spaces that can change between teaching, dining, assembly and play. College offices bring another pattern of daily occupation. The quadrangles provide a shared architectural address while allowing those different operational systems to coexist.
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The curved geometry can support this mix by producing a sequence of spaces rather than one uniform frontage. However, the available sources do not publish room-by-room schedules, acoustic measurements or post-occupancy evaluations. It is more accurate to describe the documented mix of uses than to infer performance results.
How did the team deliver a complex design under pressure?
The project used a design-and-build contract with Sir Robert McAlpine. Building Design reports that David Kohn Architects remained involved as a client-side guardian, reviewing contractor drawings to protect the design intent. In a design-and-build arrangement, that continuing review is especially important when geometry, junctions and material craft carry much of the project’s identity: design responsibility is distributed, but key decisions still need a clear architectural check as they are translated into fabrication and construction information.
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The reported team structure shows how many disciplines were needed to make the concept viable:
- David Kohn Architects: design architect and client-side guardian of design intent.
- Purcell: executive architect, translating the design into coordinated delivery information.
- Price & Myers: structural engineering for the concrete frame, curved slabs and timber roof exploration.
- Skelly & Couch: mechanical and electrical engineering.
- Arcadis: quantity surveying.
- Ridge: project management.
- Todd Longstaffe-Gowan: landscape design.
- Eva Rothschild and Monster Chetwynd: artists associated with the project.
- Grants of Shoreditch: stone façade supply and workmanship.
When was the project completed and how large is it?
The dates depend on what event is being described. Building Design records a start on site in October 2021 and lists completion in May 2024. Oxford Architects lists completion in April 2024. New College records the official opening ceremony on 13 April 2024. Those statements are not interchangeable: the opening is a dated public ceremony, while completion is a project-status designation reported differently by two sources.
Published floor-area figures also differ. Building Design reports 5,639 m² of gross internal floor area, while the RIBA Journal’s 2026 award feature reports 5,190 m² GIA. The available sources do not explain whether the discrepancy results from differing measurement conventions, project scope or revisions. Any specification, case study or cost analysis should quote the figure together with its source rather than present one as an undisputed total.
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Building Design reports a £72 million total project value and a £54.5 million construction cost. The available data does not establish the publication dates of those figures or provide a later cost update, so they should be treated as the values reported in that source, not as a current market benchmark.
What does the project reveal about designing from first principles?
The Gradel Quadrangles demonstrate several principles relevant to complex construction projects.
- Start with the site’s actual constraints. The curved plan is not a stylistic gesture detached from context; it responds to listed buildings, an irregular plot and the desired relationship between college and city.
- Let structural investigation influence form. The roof moved from a masonry-vault idea to a laminated-timber system because the latter offered a workable way to control a complex curve.
- Use digital tools where they solve physical problems. Augmented-reality tile setting-out was valuable because thousands of differently shaped pieces had to be located on an irregular surface. The technology supported craft; it did not replace it.
- Make material changes do architectural work. The contrast between Ancaster limestone and red sandstone establishes hierarchy, while the serrated red sandstone detail links the wall to the roofline.
- Protect intent through procurement. Continued architectural review of contractor drawings is a practical response to a design-and-build process in which apparently small substitutions or junction changes can alter the character of the whole.
These lessons are transferable, but they should not be mistaken for a claim that every curved building needs the same materials or digital workflow. The appropriate response depends on radius, tolerance, fire and acoustic requirements, supply-chain capability, maintenance strategy and budget.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How should the project’s sustainability claims be read?
The published account describes a long-life intention and says sustainability was embedded in the brief. That supports a discussion of durability, adaptability and careful material selection. It does not establish a specific certification, operational-energy result, embodied-carbon total or post-occupancy performance figure.
For a construction audience, the distinction matters. A long-life design intention can inform decisions about robust stone, repairable details and flexible rooms, but it is not a substitute for measured energy use or a verified assessment method. No project-specific performance statistic of that kind is established in the supplied sources, so none should be inferred.
How does the Gradel Quadrangles extend the collegiate-quad tradition?
The project is best understood as a reinterpretation rather than a rejection of the quad. It preserves the idea of a shared collegiate setting while replacing the strict rectangular enclosure with a curved sequence that negotiates historic neighbours and opens toward landscape and city. RIBA’s jury said the buildings “respect and reference” their historic neighbours while providing exceptionally well-crafted, practical, flexible and accessible spaces for the college and school.
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There is no controlled comparison in published sources with another university extension, so claims about being more efficient, more open or more sustainable than a conventional quad would be speculative. The defensible comparison is conceptual: the Gradel Quadrangles use geometry, structure, fabrication and mixed programming to adapt a familiar institutional type to a constrained contemporary brief.
Where can readers find further information?
The most detailed accounts are the Building Design project feature, the RIBA Journal award article, and Price & Myers’ structural project description. New College’s account of the 13 April 2024 opening ceremony provides the institution’s own date and context. Oxford Architects also publishes a concise project summary.
For readers interested in David Kohn Architects’ wider work, Wallpaper reports that the practice’s monograph Stages includes the Gradel Quadrangles. Check the current edition and availability before purchasing, as the supplied source does not establish a permanent listing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do the published floor areas for the Gradel Quadrangles disagree?
Building Design gives 5,639 m² of gross internal floor area, while the RIBA Journal gives 5,190 m² GIA. The sources do not explain whether the difference reflects measurement rules, scope or a design revision, so a formal report should cite the source and definition alongside any figure.
What does a client-side design guardian do on a design-and-build project?
The role provides an architectural review point after the contractor is appointed. In this case, David Kohn Architects reviewed contractor drawings so that substitutions, junctions and fabrication decisions remained consistent with the intended design, without implying that the architect carried out every production or site task.
Is the Gradel Quadrangles project certified as sustainable?
The supplied project accounts describe sustainability as part of the brief and emphasise a long-life ambition, but they do not establish a named certification or measured operational result. Claims about a rating, energy use or embodied carbon therefore require a separate verified source.
Which date should be used when describing the building’s opening?
Use 13 April 2024 for the official opening ceremony recorded by New College. If discussing practical completion, identify the source because Oxford Architects lists April 2024 while Building Design lists May 2024.
