Project: Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies

Architects: Blampied & Partners

Main Contractor: Galliford Try

Structural Engineer: Bunyan Meyer

Built: 2002 - 2005

Value: £8.5 million

Brief description

New college for the Islamic Studies comprising Dining Halls, accommodation blocks, lecture theatre, Prayer Hall, gatehouse and Directors residence, all built out of load bearing masonry.  It was the largest masonry project in the UK for possibly 3 decades.  The stones used include Clipsham, Ketton, French limestone (Farge).  The highly complex Islamic architecture and details were called for within this building, importantly for the Islamic faith, these details had to be truly traditionally and honestly constructed i.e. fully load bearing masonry with no compromise of modern solutions.  The main prayer hall is topped by a dome that grows out of squint vaulting and arches, elsewhere, vaulted colonnades over load bearing arches that then hold, structurally, a further 3 storeys of building.  Ketton worked closely with the structural engineers and the contract architect to achieve a purist form of architecture that many others in the stone industry had said they could not achieve.  Ketton came late to the project due to the fact that the clients had not heard of us and we picked up the pieces to achieve the clients requirements in full.