September_1971 — Page 42

We feature here the two schemes which won this year's award of the London-based Concrete Society. The winning entries are the hall and common room building of St Antony's College, Oxford, and the tunnel relief flyovers at Byrom Street, Liverpool. This is the fourth annual competition and it attracted over ninety entries.

The Concrete Society 1971 Award

Hall and common room

room building

ST ANTONY'S COLLEGE, OXFORD

HOWELL KILLICK PARTRIDGE AND AMIS

HARRIS AND SUTHERLAND

NORMAN COLLISSON CONSTRUCTORS LTD.

TRENT CONCRETE LTD.

owners

architects

consulting engineers

contractors precast cladding

THE project consists of a new hall and common room building designed as the first stage of a long-term de- velopment of St Antony's College.

The hall extends in height through 2 storeys. It has a gallery at second floor level overlooking it leading into two common rooms, one of which is a gen- eral common room and the other a senior members room. On the ground floor there is a large buttery and bar where drinks and informal meals can be served. There are also three small dining rooms on the east side of the ground floor for private dinner parties, the largest of which was designed to accommodate 24 people. The base ment contains a large wine store and a boiler house capable of serving the whole development.

The main dining hall is at first floor level and seats some 200 people. Its kitchens are on the same floor and are serviced by lift from a delivery yard at basement level.

The hall is designed to be both in- ward looking as a traditional College Dining hall and outward looking to take advantage of the first floor view into the College garden. To achieve this without conflict large scale pro- jecting window units have been used to contain the view and relate it to the room structure. Internally buff colour- ed brickwork laid on face in 127 mm

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(5 ft) courses has been used to give scale to the varying size concrete units.

Apart from in-situ concrete floors, the structure and cladding are formed entirely of white precast concrete. The roofs of the large spaces of the hall and common rooms are made from precast post-tensioned diagrids which, in addition to providing the structure, form the geometric basis of the natural and artificial lighting system. All the elements of the structure including the diagrid are based on the use of octa- gonal columns with 152 mm (6 in) faces and the beams, column heads and cladding edges all line up with the column faces. A fine acid etched finish is used on all the structural units while the cladding panels and window units have a larger Cornish granite exposed aggregate.

Judges' comment: It is a fine example

of the use of concrete, not only in its imaginative architecture but also in the structural solutions adopted to the particular problems posed. The build- ing is beautifully detailed and a tour de force in articulation. The effect achieved by the wide span open coffer- ed ceiling of the dining hall is striking. The lasting impression one retains from both the interior and exterior of the building is that of elegance and amenity.

B

Far East BUILDER, September 1971