The Bodleian Library, Oxford.
Twenty years ago the late Dame Zaha Hadid opened the Oxford Brookes School of Architecture Degree Show. Zaha was already fully-formed as a critcal, creative force of note, well known for her stunning speculative drawings and paintings, and with the stunning Vitra Fire Station, Weil am Rhein recently completed, her career trajectory was set.
Zaha’s death in March of this year was a tragedy; her family, friends and colleagues will have felt profound loss, and I offer sincere condolence and wish peace to them. She was only 45 years old in the summer of 1996, barely a few years older than the ten of us who reunited one weekend in Oxford twenty years later.
Studio Space, Oxford Brookes’ School of Architecture.
Students of the Oxford School of Architecture were taught by an incredible group of tutors during the 1990s, and inspired by a long list of academics and practitioners (exceptional educators each of them) including Anne Boddington, Alan Brookes, Sarah Chaplin, Ros Diamond, Murray Fraser, Mick Guy, Elspeth Hamilton, Eric Holding, Simon Lanyon-Hogg, Andrew Lane, Niall McLaughlin, and Mike Russum to name but a few. I am personally indebted to Elspeth, Andrew and Anne whose exciting Studios I am proud to have been a part of, to Iradj Parvaneh who instilled my love of photography and the alchemy of the dark room, and to the current Head of School, Matt Gaskin who supervised, questioned and guided my undergraduate dissertation.
The Architecture Block, Headington Campus.
Oxford Brookes’ School of Architecture has undergone significant growth, and physical change since 1996. In 2012, Phase One of the Headington Campus redevelopment delivered the Abercrombie Building extension by Design Engine Architects to the School. The extension rehoused and consolidated Oxford Brookes University’s Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment, and the School of Architecture.
Studio Space, Oxford Brookes’ School of Architecture.
For the Class of 1996, the staircase of the Architecture Block was the site of many anxious Crit debriefings. The staircase was always too hot, too bright, and seemed to amplify our nerves and tiredness, yet the sense of joy I felt upon discovering that it had been retained in the School’s redevelopment was profound. The system built Block, by the Local Authority Architects office was a characterful, purposeful construction; a robust, democratic, and well crafted building.
Retained terrazzo staircase from the original Architecture Block.
I am proud to have studied with the Class of 1996, and continue to be inspired by them. I was thrilled to spend a weekend with Al, Ben, Charlie, Ed, Howard, Nick, Oliver, Rich and Sophie laughing, ‘debating’, and reminiscing as old friends:
Oliver Bridge, Oliver Bridge Architects.
Ben Hebblethwaite, Director Godsmark Architecture.
Ed Jarvis, Principal Urban Designer, London Borough of Camden.
Charlie Luxton, C4 presenter [Building the Dream etc.], and founder Charlie Luxton Design.
Richard Macrae, co-founder EDRM.
Alasdair McKenzie, co-founder Studio JaM [former assciate architect, Bennetts Associates].
Howard Smith, co-owner Brinkworth Design Ltd., and co-owner MassifCentral.
Sophie Steed, Director Squire and Partners.
Nick Tomlinson, co-founder Tonic Architecture.
Retained Staircase’ hardwood handrail, Oxford Brookes’ School of Architecture.
Her green plastic watering can
For her fake Chinese rubber plant
In the fake plastic earth
That she bought from a rubber man
In a town full of rubber plans
To get rid of itself
It wears her out, it wears her out
It wears her out, it wears her out
She lives with a broken man
A cracked polystyrene man
Who just crumbles and burns
He used to do surgery
For girls in the eighties
But gravity always wins
It wears him out, it wears him out
It wears him out, it wears him out
She looks like the real thing
She tastes like the real thing
My fake plastic love
But I can't help the feeling
I could blow through the ceiling
If I just turn and run
It wears me out, it wears me out
It wears me out, it wears me out
If I could be who you wanted
If I could be who you wanted all the time
All the time...
All the time...
Fake Plastic Trees, Colin Greenwood, Ed O'brien, Jonny Greenwood, Phil Selway, and Thom Yorke [Radiohead].
