Feilden Fowles wins contest to transform Oxford college

The practice, working with heritage consultant Marcus Beale Architects, was chosen ahead of rival bids by Allies and Morrison and Stirling laureates Haworth Tompkins, Mae and Mikhail Riches to win the contest run by the college’s development partner Stories.

Feilden Fowles’ win comes just months after it won planning for a mixed-use development for nearby Green Templeton College in north Oxford and two years after it completed a new faience-tiled dining hall for Homerton College, Cambridge.

Mansfield College opened in 1886 as a theological training school for nonconformist ministers and occupies a series of Basil Champneys-designed buildings in the centre of Oxford.

Feilden Fowles will look at integrating the site’s Grade II*-listed buildings with contemporary approaches to study and community ‘embodying the inclusive and respectful culture that defines Mansfield today’.

Key aims of the upgrade project include the renewal and delivery of around 200 on-site bedrooms along with creating a new porters’ lodge, entrance, social spaces and teaching and learning facilities.

Practice director Edmund Fowles said: ‘Conceived as a whole ensemble, Mansfield College is a unique example of collegiate architecture for its period, and we’ve enjoyed exploring Basil Champneys’ fine buildings and his writing to inform our approach to its evolution.

‘Our designs will have to weave the rich history and identity of the past with contemporary and future ideas about study and community, and most crucially continue to foster the inclusive and respectful culture that defines Mansfield today: open, friendly and welcoming.’

College principal Helen Mountfield said: ‘We are delighted to be working with so exciting a practice as Feilden Fowles on plans for a sensitive redevelopment of the college site to make it one of the most welcoming, inclusive and sustainable colleges in Oxford.

‘I am determined to ensure that everyone who joins our community can have everything they need to thrive: world-class teaching and supervision, great facilities, and the practical and financial support to seize every opportunity presented to them. This is what we aim to achieve through our campaign: For Mansfield. Forever.’

Feilden Fowles won planning consent for a cultural and educational centre on a former dairy farm in the South Downs National Park last month.