After a delay of over six years due to planning and finance issues, the Zaha Hadid project for the extension of the Middle Eastern Centre at St Antony’s College is programmed to to go ahead later this month. St Antony’s College is one of the seven graduate colleges which make up the University of Oxford, the oldest institution of its kind in Great Britain.
The contemporary tunnel like structure incorporates all the elements we associate with the architecture of Zaha Hadid, reflective metal surfaces, transparencies and sweeping curves. The two levels of the interior will accommodate the library and archives as an enrichment of the study of humanities and social science in the Arab world. In addition a lecture theatre will be located in the basement of the extension. The 1.200sqm structure is part of a larger regeneration plan for the facilities of St Antony’s College.
