Founded in 1957, the Middle East Centre of St Antony’s College, required an extension of its facilities. On a newly acquired 1,100 qm site, a lecture theatre for 117 persons, a library, reading rooms and an archive were ­accommodated.

Cantilevered out from the ground floor, which is glazed on two faces, an organically shaped stainless-steel volume curves round a centuries old sequoia tree, forming a bridge between the listed university structures. Along the south side, the development swings up and opens in a ten-metre-high slenderly articulated glazed front that allows a maximum of daylight to enter.