Green Templeton College is a graduate-only College located at the heart of Oxford University’s emerging centre of gravity. This area, now called the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter (ROQ), benefits from the proximity of the Observatory Tower, an important landmark that defines the ROQ within Oxford city centre and gives it local distinctiveness. As a graduate-only College aiming to set a new Oxford standard for postgraduate education, GTC provides a friendly and supportive environment for postgraduate and research students, where they can focus on their studies while also pursuing sporting, cultural, and social interests in the company of their peers. It is a remarkably diverse and lively international student body: currently, more than 60% of students come from countries outside the UK.

Green Templeton College does not conform to the pattern of many of the older Colleges, which have regular interconnecting quads. Its origins were neither medieval nor collegiate, but rather those of a country house set within parkland. The Observatory building, by its very purpose, determines an orientation. The chimneys of the main dining hall relate to the scale of the Observatory drum; the main mass relates to the Observer’s House roof; whilst the kitchen block matches the Observer’s House parapet height. Finally, the link wall and single-storey aedicules relate to the scale of the garden and its surrounding wall.

The masonry façades of the proposed buildings reference the shifts between brick and stone that characterise the surrounding garden wall. Headington stone is introduced in the ground-floor façades of all three accommodation buildings to create a continuous datum encircling the garden, corresponding with the height of the historic wall. Above, the masonry unit reduces to a more domestic scale, roughly laid with thick mortar joints to mirror the irregularity and rich texture of the historic wall. The buff tones of the proposed stone and clay will marry with the existing colour palette of the other College buildings.

The Garden Café will play an important role in providing a functional and informal communal space for students. It will connect interior and exterior spaces, allowing the gardens to be enjoyed by the College community and its visitors. It is located on the site of a modern greenhouse, which it replaces, yet borrows from its distinctive form and character, nestling against the handsome historic kitchen garden wall.