Wright & Wright completes Corpus Christi Library Expansion, featured in AJ
The 479m2 Spencer Building is a new Passivhaus-certified special collections centre and library extension
The extension modernises the library, which no longer met the needs of the university’s staff and students.
It includes 55 new reader spaces, six dedicated research desks and just under 2,000m of archival shelving – as well as consolidating the college’s special collections in an environmentally controlled core.
Corpus Christi’s special collections are of international significance and contain more than 20,000 early printed books and 546 manuscripts, including works by Galileo, Erasmus and the Venerable Bede.
The project also marks the first time in the college’s 508-year history that step-free access has been created to the historic library, opening the space to all.
The building’s constrained site has undergone many transformations over the years. First built as the president’s lodgings in the 17th century, it is the most altered part of the college. With only the eastern wing of the original structure remaining, the site was suited for the new library.
The Spencer Building is framed by three historic features: the medieval City Wall to the west, a listed façade facing the Garden Quad to the east, and the college’s old library to the south.
Historic fabric has been retained on three elevations, while a refined new limestone façade on Oriel Square replaces a 1950s garage.
The façade was inspired by the college’s distinctive windows, which traditionally mark key social spaces, including the hall and chapel. A large library window has been placed within it.
Inside, a new staircase is aligned on axis with the old library. The new library has views both towards the old library’s end wall and the chapel’s stained-glass window.
Designed to Passivhaus standards in collaboration with Max Fordham, the archive has been placed in a highly insulated, airtight concrete bunker built against the city wall. This harnesses the wall’s thermal mass to create stable low-energy environmental conditions for the collections.
The building’s east side has the naturally lit reader spaces with triple-glazed windows. Three reading rooms spread over three floors offer varied working conditions, from intimate to collaborative, each with views over the garden quad.
All furniture is bespoke and made of oak and brass in keeping with the rest of the college.
The building is all electric: there are PVs on the roof, along with a highly efficient mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery for maintaining air quality. Space heating is provided via a ground-source heat pump.
It is fully accessible with provision for wheelchair users, power-assisted doors and accessible toilets throughout. The step-free route includes level access at the entrance, a lift behind the main staircase providing access to all floors, and a wheelchair-accessible study space within the old library, equipped with a rise-and-fall desk.
Corpus Christi College was founded in 1517 and is one of the University of Oxford’s oldest and smallest colleges. It is located south of the city centre, and is home to around 265 undergraduates and 130 graduate students.
Berman Guedes Stretton (BGS) won approval for earlier plans for a special collection archive at the college back in 2015. However, Wright & Wright was then commissioned for the project in 2019, winning planning in 2020. Work started on site in 2021.
Architect’s view
Existing elements and conditions were a starting point, not a constraint. The Spencer Building emerges from Corpus’s historic fabric, generating unexpected synergies and introducing sustainable, inclusive and forward-looking spaces. - Clare Wright, founding partner, Wright & Wright Architects
Client’s view
At Corpus, we are always mindful of our responsibilities as custodians of our college’s history and also its future. In that light, we are delighted at the news that the Spencer Building has secured full Passivhaus accreditation. This achievement truly embodies our vision of encompassing simultaneously the best of the old and the best of the new. - Helen Moore, president, Corpus Christi College Oxford
The Spencer Building at Corpus Christi College Oxford
An exemplar of sustainability, the Passivhaus library expands study space, improves accessibility and safeguards a world-class collection with minimal energy use.
