Humanities Building project
In its most ambitious project since the creation of the University Science Area in the early twentieth century, the University seeks to establish a new Humanities Building and Library on the ROQ site that will complement – both academically and architecturally – facilities offered in the colleges.
New challenges and opportunities are opening up in the humanities, changing patterns of research and offering new possibilities for interdisciplinary and collaborative work. The current architectural landscape of Oxford is ill-fitted to support such developments.
Historic buildings possess great charm, but impose constraints. Not only are the majority of humanities faculties housed in buildings that offer little space for graduate students, visiting scholars, or research groups, but they are spread out in a variety of small buildings across the city.
By building a new Humanities Building, the University aims to consolidate individual humanities faculties into one building; provide high quality modern teaching and research facilities that offer the possibility of interdisciplinary, collaborative work; and provide a unified Humanities Library.
The new building, designed by Bennetts Associates, will consist of five floors of faculty accommodation above two floors of library and teaching space.
The design offers extensive and flexible teaching, research, and study space, and provides the very latest developments in information technology.
Phase one of the building will house the Humanities Division as well as the English, History, Theology and Philosophy faculties. Each faculty will have an allocation of rooms for administrative staff along with seminar, research and social space.
The Library will constitute one of Oxford University Library Service's major facilities and will be an important new resource for students and staff of all faculties relocated to the ROQ site.
There will also be extensive shared teaching space, including three large lecture theatres, fourteen seminar rooms of various sizes and a screen room.
A public exhibition about plans for the Humanities Building and Library, as well as the proposed Mathematical Institute Building, took place in October 2009 and planning permission was granted by Oxford City Council on 27 May 2010.
