Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre

Education & Public Sector Winner 2018

Location: Oxford
Architect: Niall McLaughlin Architects
Client/Owner: Worcester College
Structural Engineer: Price & Myers
Main Contractor: Beard Construction
Joinery: Barn 6
Furniture: Benchmark, David Colwell Design
Timber Flooring: Junckers
Wood Supplier: Inwood Developments, Brooks Brothers
Wood Species: European oak, Siberian larch

The new Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre houses a large lecture theatre, a student learning space, seminar rooms and a dance studio. The project has developed and enhanced a significant part of the College’s site. The building is raised on a podium and has been designed as a theatre within a garden. A curved, stone auditorium opens directly onto an oak-ceilinged foyer that extends out to pergolas and terraces overlooking the cricket pitch. The theatre is framed by a high stone screen that rises to allow clerestory light into the space. It is surmounted by a pleated ceiling sweeping down to the stage. The space can operate as fully enclosed, darkened, or as a brightly lit environment. The dance studio stands at the end of a long serpentine lake that connects back to the ancient heart of the College.