Exeter College Cohen Quad by Alison Brooks Architects
Contemporary Oxford quadrangle with curved stainless steel roof, cloisters, courtyards, and integrated student housing, learning commons, and auditorium.
Architects: Alison Brooks Architects
Located in the historic city of Oxford, the Exeter College Cohen Quad is a 6,000 m² contemporary reinterpretation of Oxford’s 800-year-old collegiate quadrangle tradition. Completed in 2020, this transformative university extension reimagines the pedagogical courtyard model by combining student accommodation, teaching facilities, and communal spaces within a bold architectural language that bridges heritage and innovation.
Designed as an S-shaped plan weaving between two landscaped courtyards, the Cohen Quad expands Exeter College’s 700-year-old campus with housing for 90 students, fellows’ accommodation, seminar rooms, a café, special collections archive, auditorium, offices, and the dynamic Learning Commons. The project reinforces Oxford’s academic fabric while redefining collegiate living for the 21st century.
Reinventing the Oxford Quadrangle Typology
The Oxford quadrangle has historically organized student rooms and teaching spaces around enclosed courtyards, fostering intellectual exchange and community life. Alison Brooks Architects reinterpret this typology through a fluid spatial sequence connected by a three-dimensional ambulatory. Cloisters, amphitheatre stairs, garden walks, and landings form a narrative route linking public and private realms.
At the heart of the plan, the multi-level Learning Commons operates as the social and academic core. Opening onto both courtyards, it encourages chance encounters and interdisciplinary dialogue. Its layered configuration responds to the site’s constraints while accommodating substantial basement-level programming, maximizing density without sacrificing spatial quality.
A Sculptural Curved Roof and Oxford Skyline Identity
The defining architectural gesture is the sinuous stainless steel roof, which folds seamlessly across walls and roof planes as a single tailored surface. This contemporary evolution of the mansard typology softens ridges and eaves into radii, echoing historic precedents such as the curved mansards of Paris and the domed forms of All Souls College.
The diagonally set metal tiles resemble fish scales, adapting naturally to the building’s curvature. Subtle checkerboard patterning references the latticed leadwork of Exeter College Chapel’s spire, translating Gothic craft traditions into advanced 21st-century construction technology. The roof not only reshapes Oxford’s skyline but also encloses vaulted loft study bedrooms beneath its embracing form—realizing the concept of a “scholarly home.”
Cloisters, Commons, and Spatial Drama
Two cloisters flank the courtyards with contrasting geometries. The south cloister, constructed from cross-laminated timber, features a concave elliptical void that transforms circulation into inhabitable space. The north cloister, formed in structural concrete, presents a convex geometry that guides visitors toward the Fitzhugh Auditorium.
In the auditorium, the roof lifts dramatically to form a theatre skylight. A glue-laminated timber structure suspends one half of the roof from the other via steel plates, creating a subtle twist that draws natural light across curved surfaces. This expressive structural move merges engineering precision with spatial poetry.
Material Strategy and Interior Atmosphere
The Cohen Quad’s material palette balances institutional gravitas with residential warmth. Limestone defines the two-storey stone-clad base and public teaching spaces, reinforcing continuity with Oxford’s historic masonry. Concrete staircases and steel frames introduce structural clarity, while cherry wood joinery, parquet flooring, and brass handrails infuse warmth and tactility into student living spaces.
Cherry timber—used for doors, paneling, and custom joinery—adds character through its rich grain and evolving patina, creating an environment that feels both scholarly and domestic.
Contemporary Educational Architecture in Oxford
As a university extension project, the Exeter College Cohen Quad demonstrates how contemporary educational architecture can respectfully engage historic urban contexts while introducing innovative form, sustainable materials, and spatial complexity. By merging courtyard tradition, advanced metal craftsmanship, cross-laminated timber construction, and community-focused programming, Alison Brooks Architects have created a new architectural landmark that enriches Oxford’s collegiate identity.
The Cohen Quad stands as a model for adaptive campus expansion—balancing heritage conservation, student wellbeing, and forward-thinking design within one cohesive architectural vision.
All photographs are works of
Paul Riddle, Hufton+Crow
