New College, Oxford has selected Mikhail Riches from a five-strong shortlist of leading architectural practices who were asked to explore ways of integrating the College’s buildings on Longwall Street.
Other finalists included Richard Griffiths Architects, ADP, Adam Richards Architects and Adrian James Architects. The competition, which asked for creative approaches to resolve the site’s constraints while respecting its heritage, was organised by Malcolm Reading Consultants.
The project will retain the houses’ facades and create a new £1 million mews development designed to release space and re-orientate the buildings towards the historic College, which is part of the University of Oxford.
Mikhail Riches will now be asked to develop their approach into a feasibility study.
David Hamilton, Senior Associate of Malcolm Reading Consultants, said:
‘This has always been considered a difficult site and New College showed great imagination in commissioning a bespoke competitive process to stimulate new design approaches. All the teams rose to the challenge and the quality of ideas was very strong. Mikhail Riches’ options-based approach, which could see the project grow over time, offered a highly attractive yet realistic way forward.’
Twelve teams were invited to submit an Expression of Interest for the competition, which was launched in July 2014. The full longlist is below.
Longlist:
- Adam Richards Architects
- ADP
- Adrian James Architects
- De Matos Ryan
- Emrys Architects
- Gray Baynes + Shew
- Jonathan Hendry
- Mikhail Riches
- Purcell
- Richard Griffiths Architects
- Studio Octopi
- Thomas Croft Architects
Shortlist:
- Adam Richards Architects
- ADP
- Adrian James Architects
- Mikhail Riches (Winner)
- Richard Griffiths Architects
