The Beecroft Building – the Department’s first new major research facility for over 50 years – transforms the capabilities and working practices of one of the largest physics departments in the world.
Given the location on one of the most prominent and sensitive sites in Oxford – close to listed buildings, a conservation area and protected trees – it was essential our design responded appropriately to the site’s past while creating a world-class facility fit for the future. Our approach has been to challenge the pre-conceived norms around academic environments by combining high-tech laboratories with collaborative spaces that encourage people to come together.
The Beecroft Building is essentially a 10-storey tower – half of it buried below ground to achieve the performance requirements. Above ground, it could be mistaken for a modern workspace and not one of the world’s most advanced centres for quantum research.
Clad in a combination of glass and expanded copper mesh panels with a grid of naturally weathering bronze fins, the material choices echo neighbouring Keble College Chapel. Behind the large picture-frame windows, you’ll find the theorists working together in an array of collaborative environments to solve today’s complex scientific problems.
A striking five-storey atrium is connected by a meandering staircase that winds its way up through the building. The staircase has been designed to enhance social interactions; breakout spaces with informal seating and curved blackboards shoot off at half levels creating pockets for discussion and debate.
What lies beneath is a 16-metre-deep complex of high-specification laboratories, enabling extremely sensitive experiments that advance research into quantum science and technology.
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