| St Catherine's College was founded in 1962 and is Oxford’s newest college and also one of its largest. The architect Arne Jacobsen’s designed the college’s Grade 1 listed buildings to reflect elements of a traditional Oxford college but also to create a practical and aesthetically pleasing environment. At the heart of the College lies a rectangular quad, its sides formed by student rooms built in the conventional Oxford staircase format with Dining Hall and Library at either end. The upper floors of the residential blocks are cantilevered out with concrete beams. Across the Quad the concrete bell tower rises behind the Library’s plate glass and copper walls. The original entrance to the college is from an expanse of lawn, graced with Barbara Hepworth’s ‘Achaean’ sculpture, and bordered by a water garden in front of the buff brick and plate glass residential block of buildings. |
