Rothermere American Institute
Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF)
Date: 2001
In Autumn 2009 I took a ten-week class at OUDCE on “Modern Movements in Architecture: the Case of Oxford”. As part of this I had to write an assessment of a modern building of my choice. What follows in an extract from my full assignment. Some pictures are after the text.
With its visible steel, glass and concrete structural elements the building is unashamedly modernist, but there are links with Oxford tradition in its use of Bath stone, oak and zinc. Its function is primarily to house the Vere Harmsworth Library and provide facilities for the library’s users. Seminar rooms and offices for academic staff are relegated to the two lower ground levels, with the offices enjoying a view over the lawn while the seminar rooms have north-facing windows giving onto a narrow sunken paved area backed by a wall. Library users, on the other hand, can look out over the lawn to the Princess Margaret Memorial Garden and the 19th century neo-gothic library and Master’s lodgings of Mansfield College.
Three sides of the building are relatively plain and undecorated. The northern elevation consists of two storeys of buff-coloured stone ashlar with inset windows, above which is a glass wall of windows framed in dark grey steel. The eastern end features a curved glass tower – the lift shaft – and an entrance atrium the full height of the building which gives a sense of space and light.
It is the southern side which is the highlight of the exterior. A glass wall extends from the atrium almost the full width of the building. Light in the upper two storeys which house the reading room, main book stacks and the study carrels is moderated by a series of parallel “fritted” glass shades which “cut out direct sun and provide an even diffuse light to the areas of study”. At night when the lights shine out through the glass the building is particularly attractive.
Inside, the main floor area is mostly open-plan, being the working floor of the library. The ceiling is exposed concrete in a series of transverse arches reminiscent of barrel vaulting. Bare concrete pillars support the ceiling and run up through the height of the building. All the exposed concrete has a smooth finish.
At mezzanine level on the south side is the reading room, a double-height open study area overlooking the lawn. The first and second floors house the main book stacks and provide individual study carrels whose oak louvres echo the external glass shades.Despite the large areas of glass in the building there is no air-conditioning except in the rare books depository and seminar rooms on the lower ground floor.
The building won a RIBA award in 2003 (one of seventy that year) and a Civic Trust award the same year. Kohn Pedersen Fox set out to create a “garden pavilion” which would both complement and enhance its setting as the third side of a quadrangle with Mansfield College buildings on two other sides. By keeping the finished height below the older buildings the Institute avoids dominating its neighbour. Nevertheless it is a striking building which stands on its own merits. The extensive use of glass achieves a sense of space and openness which sits well with the building’s purpose as a meeting place and an academic resource.