Honorable Mention: International Architecture Awards 2024
Cohen Quadrangle, Exeter College, Oxford | Oxford, United Kingdom | 2021

Architects: Alison Brooks Architects Ltd.
Project Architect: Hannah Constantine
Design Team: Alison Brooks, Michael Woodford, Jay Williams, Ceri Edmunds, Sergey Kudryashev, Joseph Ransom Shaw, Sara Wernsten, Jun Kondo, and Ricky Li
Conservation Consultant: Richard Griffiths
Landscape Architects: Dan Pearson Studio
General Contractor: Mace Ltd.
Client: Exeter College, Oxford
Photographers: Paul Riddle, Hufton and Crow, and Studio8

Alison Brooks Architects (ABA) has delivered Oxford University’s first dedicated social learning space, integrated within a new collegiate building. The new building, Cohen Quad, was awarded to ABA through an international competition and marks Oxford’s first academic and residential quadrangle by a female architect. ABA’s 6000 sqm building functions as Exeter College’s ‘second’ campus in the city, expanding their 700-year-old campus at Oxford University.

Led by Alison Brooks, ABA's daring design retains the historic Grade II Listed 1913 Ruskin College facade and plugs the contemporary expansion into it. Reinventing the traditional ‘collegiate quadrangle’ rooted in medieval monastic traditions, the Cohen Quad project reflects contemporary ways of learning and socializing, reimagining the Oxford College as a modern and accessible home for diverse student and teaching communities. With the inclusion of a central Learning Commons—the university's first social learning area—the design promotes open, informal, and interconnected spaces for study, dining, and socializing. Cohen Quad redefines the conventional four-sided quadrangle into two quads formed by an S-shaped building. Adjacent cloisters connect to the Learning Commons and wind through the length of the building.

Conceived as a journey with a series of destinations, the building’s light-filled and universally accessible spaces create visual connections and facilitate social and knowledge exchange, both within the spaces and with the city. Private seminar, study rooms, auditorium, offices, and student accommodation rooms distributed at different levels overlook these common areas. Unlike typical student housing, the Cohen Quad serves as an inclusive learning and social venue where students both study and live, thereby doubling its use and enriching the atmosphere it harbors. Social areas are active spaces day and night with lectures, tutorials, exhibitions, events, conferences, enticing students out of their rooms to support mental well-being and relieve academic pressure. The building, virtually self-sufficient, hosts a versatile mix of spaces, including a double-height café-restaurant, seminar rooms, offices and essential facilities like laundry, IT, housekeeping, and prep kitchens.

Fitzhugh Auditorium, a 110-seat multi-purpose space hosts concerts, events, lectures, and dinners with optimal acoustics and a controlled environment. The College's Special Collections Archive, which stores and exhibits archival documents, is located in the basement, accompanied by a research room for visiting scholars. The top four floors of Cohen Quad host 90 bed-and-study rooms with shared family kitchens. Wheelchair-accessible rooms overlook Worcester Place, and Fellows' spaces occupy lofts under the curved roof.

The third floor features four research and teaching offices around a light-filled Senior Common Room with a roof terrace. Cohen Quad features a durable material palette, featuring limestone, cherry wood, and glulam timber. The distinctive curved roof, adorned with stainless steel Rimex shingles, serves as a unifying element. Drawing inspiration from the Arts and Crafts Movement led by William Morris—a graduate of Exeter College—and referencing George Gilbert Scott's spire of Exeter College's neo-Gothic Chapel, the roof's patterned stainless steel gracefully folds across surfaces, like the tailoring of cloth to a body. The roof's unique geometry and material is a unifying device between the old and new, a mediator between institutional and residential, and the all-embracing enclosure for this scholarly community.