Riverside Project, Magdalen College

Oxford, United Kingdom 2022–present

Client: Magdalen College Grade I listed

Magdalen College is famous for its medieval core which includes some of the most beautiful and spacious quads in Oxford. The college is unusual because it sits outside the original city walls on a site arrayed along the banks of the river Cherwell, the age of its buildings and its riverside setting giving it a more bucolic quality than Oxford’s later, more urban, colleges.

Site plan

Ground floor plan

Cross sections AA, BB, DD

Cross sections 01, 02

Garden Room elevations

Garden room section

Project update

Stone façade mock-up
New Garden Room Building

Oxford, Magdalen College

A full-scale stone façade mock-up of the new Garden Room building has been constructed on site at Magdalen College Oxford. The stone is Clipsham limestone, quarried in the Medwell and Bidwell quarries in Lincolnshire. The mock-up is intended to enable the final review of the material selection, assembly, and technical detailing of the load-bearing façade ahead of construction works targeted to start in November.

Project: Riverside Project, Magdalen College

Under construction

Riverside project starts on site

Magdalen College, Oxford, UK

Public notice for the commencement of the first phase of construction works for the Riverside Project. This first phase will see all works within the Grade I listed Cloisters IX completing ahead of Phase 2 scheduled to follow in close sequence by the end of the year, subject to College approval.

Project: Riverside Project, Magdalen College

Planning permission

Riverside Project, Magdalen College

Oxford, United Kingdom

Planning permission has been granted for the Riverside Project at Magdalen College in Oxford. The project is focused on enhancing the social heart of the college — a series of rooms on the east side of the estate clustered around the Old Kitchen Bar and the river terrace overlooking the Cherwell. The scheme will increase social and teaching space, improve access, conserve existing listed fabric, and reduce energy loss as part of an estate-wide programme of decarbonization.

Project: Riverside Project, Magdalen College

Location
Oxford, United Kingdom

Date
2022–present

Client
Magdalen College

Heritage
Grade I listed

Sustainability
BREEAM Outstanding

Area
1,200 m²

Caruso St John Architects
Adam Caruso, Peter St John, Rod Heyes

Project architects
Catija Christensson (2022–2023), Vassia Chatzikonstantinou (2023–present)

Project team
Rachel Caul, Eleanor Catlin, James Flaus, David Lawrence, Carlos Peters, Benjamin Wells, Tom Whittaker

Structural engineer
Alan Baxter

Services engineer
Ritchie + Daffin