De Breyne - Hayward - Keble College, Oxford, UK



Architect
Ahrends, Burton and Koralek
Date Built
May 1977
Location
Keble College, Oxford
Description
This building's description in the "National Heritage List for England" says this about it, "The plan resembles a snake which slowly uncoils down Blackhall Road ....



..... the block descending in height as it does from five storeys to one, with study bedrooms at the higher end set in pairs off staircases with kitchens and showers on alternate levels, and the transformer station and one flat set divided by a set of gates from the workshop, the other flat and common room at the low end of the principal building. ..... The elevation to Blackhall Road is treated as a wall, with chamfered corners and copings. Projecting buttresses reflect the form of the Gothic buildings behind and conceal slit windows to kitchens and showers, and with narrow paired windows to study bedrooms.



Larger windows to first-floor flat with roof garden set over workshop; round opening in single-storey wall masks garden to second flat. Similar treatment to end of De Breyne building facing quad.

On the garden side, continuous patent glazing, angled over walkway in semi-basement, with ventilation gap between it and brick walls, and angled too over lowest range of bedrooms and entrances to stairs."









The description of the Grade II* Listed building adds that, "The building is immaculately detailed and little altered, and is probably ABK's best-known and most successful English work."


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