Mansfield College, Oxford Transformation

Feilden Fowles has been appointed as lead designer on a holistic transformation of University of Oxford’s Mansfield College, working alongside development partner Stories to address the estate and the needs of students and teaching staff. The wide-ranging project involves the development of a plan for new facilities and the significant enhancement and refurbishment of heritage buildings, while working towards the College’s ambitious sustainability targets. The architects won a limited design competition run by Stories working with architectural advisor Municipal.

Helen Mountfield, Principal, Mansfield College, said:

“We are delighted to be working with so exciting a practice as Feilden Fowles on plans for a sensitive redevelopment of the College site to make it one of the most welcoming, inclusive and sustainable colleges in Oxford. I am determined to ensure that everyone who joins our community can have everything they need to thrive: world-class teaching and supervision, great facilities, and the practical and financial support to seize every opportunity presented to them. This is what we aim to achieve through our campaign: For Mansfield. Forever.”

Read more about the ethos behind this exciting new project, in Helen Mountfield’s interview with the Guardian, here.

 

Image credits;

Photograph: Mansfield College 2019 (c) Greg Smolonski, Photovibe.

Aerial: Google Earth, 2024

A new garden for Tate Britain

Tate Britain today announced our collaboration with Tom Stuart-Smith Studio, to transform the landscape in front of the gallery.

This new garden, to be named the Clore Garden, has been made possible by a generous donation from the Clore Duffield Foundation. Chaired by Dame Vivien Duffield, the foundation is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. The project will be realised in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and will create a beautiful and welcoming new green space on London’s Millbank open to everyone.

Home to the world’s greatest collection of British art, Tate Britain attracts well over a million visitors each year. Its new garden will reframe the way these visitors approach the gallery from the river. Opening in 2026, the Clore Garden will offer an open invitation to rest and recharge, a space to encounter art and engage with the natural world, and a place for local communities to enjoy.

Image : © Tate Photography

Black Robin Farm is awarded planning

We are delighted that Black Robin Farm, our project for Eastbourne Borough Council (EBC), in partnership with Towner Eastbourne, has been granted planning permission, following the planning committee vote in favour of the scheme. The application will be formally approved by a senior official once conditions are fulfilled.

This unique project in the beautiful rolling landscape of the South Downs will deliver unprecedented equal access to the national park whilst preserving and enhancing the beauty and ecology of the site’s remarkable 19th century agricultural Downland setting.

Black Robin Farm, situated on a site that was formerly a dairy farm, will be a new type of culture centre where art, culture, heritage and ecology will come together as a new eastern gateway to the South Downs. The project will be design with sustainability and site specificity at its core, with a commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. This follows EBC’s successful £19.8 million bid to the government’s Levelling Up Fund, £11 million of which is being invested into the Black Robin Farm project.

Thanks to Eastbourne Borough Council, Towner Eastbourne and @townergallery & the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. To read more about the project, click here.

Green Templeton College is awarded planning

Feilden Fowles’ plans for a mixed-use development for Green Templeton College (GTC), University of Oxford, have been granted planning and listed building consent by Oxford City Planning Committee, representing a milestone in the college’s 40-year plan, which includes improving its main accommodation, academic and social facilities, while continuing to decarbonise its estate. The primary aims of the development are to enhance facilities for students and the wider GTC community on the central college site, including provision of high-quality student study bedrooms, an enhanced entrance and porters’ lodge, doubling dining capacity and much needed student study space. The proposals embody GTC’s ethos of ‘making the world a better place to live in’ contributing positively to the sustainability of the College estate and to the architectural heritage of Oxford. To read more about the project, click here.

Brockwell Park

South London community hub, Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses, has been shortlisted for the @ribajournal MacEwan Awards 2024. Read more about the scheme on our project page or in the RIBAJ.

Feilden Fowles are working a 9-day fortnight

The last couple of years have pushed us to rethink our working methods and patterns. With the aim of providing more flexibility and a better work/life balance for our team, Feilden Fowles have been working a 9-day-fortnight pattern since April 2022, meaning every two weeks full-time staff will have an additional day off. We are confident that this initiative will not negatively impact our services but improve professionalism, efficiency, quality, and timeliness by encouraging a more energised and contented workforce. Free-days are usually on Fridays unless impacted by bank holidays. To keep our clients and collaborators informed, Feilden Fowles will be observing the following bank holidays and ‘free-days’ in 2024:

January: 1 (Bank Holiday), 26
February: 9, 23
March: 8, 29 (Easter)
April: 1 (Easter), 19
May: 6, 27 (Bank Holidays)
July: 12, 26
August: 9, 26 (Bank Holiday)
September: 13, 27
October: 11, 25
December: 13, 25-27 (Christmas)

Feilden Fowles is shortlisted for the AR Emerging Awards 2023!

We are excited to have been shortlisted for the Architectural Review’s Emerging Architects 2023. We’re looking forward to presenting our scheme at Homerton College alongside some of the new projects going on in the studio to the judging panel. To see the full shortlist, follow this link.

Black Robin Farm is submitted for planning

Our designs for a new arts, culture and education centre on the South Downs coast have been submitted to planning. The scheme at Black Robin Farm will create new learning studios, gallery and events spaces and become a gateway to the beautiful landscapes that surround the site. For more information on the project click here.

Sir David Attenborough unveils quote at the Natural History Museum

Sir David Attenborough’s compelling words, ‘The future of the natural world, on which we all depend, is in our hands’ were unveiled in bronze lettering outside the Natural History Museum’s main entrance and will overlook the new gardens. The quote will form part of the newly developed gardens designed by Feilden Fowles in collaboration with J&L Gibbons at the Natural History Museum as part of the broader Urban Nature Project.