Arne Jacobsen designed St Catherine’s College in the University of Oxford, near Cherwell river. Alan Bullock established the college in 1962 with these glass and concrete Modernist buildings. Attention to detail extended to furniture and individual scale of pieces. Such effort is rarely seen today.
The columns extrude from the building envelope in De Stijl fashion, but the overall scheme fits into a strict traditional grid layout. Sun-shading extrusions assume the same character as these structural members, yet interior structural members meet walls at window locations. Concrete, metal, and masonry are composed with little consideration of their own character. It is thus a very self-contradicting and liberal design.
Norman Foster’s addition is far less interesting.
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