John McAslan + Partners converts 1892 Oxford power station into business school hub

John McAslan + Partners has transformed Osney Power Station, Oxford's first electrical power plant dating from 1892, into a 120-bedroom learning and accommodation centre for the university's Saïd Business School.

The British studio restored the brick facades of the disused Victorian building, which now operates as the Global Leadership Centre. It rebuilt and extended the metal-clad turbine sheds on the upper levels, continuing their repetitive pitched silhouette with a matching brick and metal-clad extension.

The programme includes:

• 120 bedrooms across three upper floors
• Flexible teaching and meeting spaces
• A dining room, library and gym
• A terrace overlooking the River Thames
• A triple-height entrance and shared space carved from the former turbine hall

How did the studio treat the industrial fabric?

The practice retained steel trusses, exposed brickwork and a gantry crane inside the building to preserve its industrial appearance. An outdoor courtyard cuts into the centre of the plan to bring natural light into the depth of the building, while perforated grey metal wraps the upper portion to filter daylight into the bedrooms.

"Our approach to transforming the redundant power station into the Global Leadership Centre for the University of Oxford has been to harness the existing building's distinctive characteristics," said studio founder John McAslan.

"Central to this is the retention and expression of its powerful internal volume as an agora, a collegiate quad for interaction and the exchange of ideas, while the residential accommodation on the upper floors celebrates the surrounding landscape and strengthens the building's relationship with its setting," he said.

Why were the sheds rebuilt rather than kept?

Not every element survived the retrofit. Energy modelling showed that rebuilding the lightweight internal sheds would outperform retention in carbon terms, according to associate architect Stephen Leccacorvi.

"Retaining the three historic facades of Osney Power Station was central to our approach, but energy modelling demonstrated that rebuilding the lightweight internal sheds would deliver substantially better long-term carbon performance than retaining the poorly performing existing fabric," Leccacorvi said.

"This allowed us to introduce a highly efficient building envelope and accommodate the centre's new programme while preserving the monumental scale and industrial character of the original power station," he added.

The retrofit upgraded insulation and airtightness, and the building now draws on photovoltaic panels and air-source heat pumps.

Who delivered the project?

John McAslan + Partners acted as architect and landscape architect. The team also included Mann Williams as structural and civil engineer, Long and Partners for building services and MEP, Arcadis as quantity surveyor, RBA Acoustics as acoustic consultant, Clive Onions as flood-risk consultant, GIA Surveyors for daylight and sunlight, IMA Transport Planning, Savills as planning consultant, Ridge and Partners as project manager, Pell Frischmann as fire consultant and Graham as contractor.

The project joins a run of recent University of Oxford commissions, including a stone-clad science building by NBBJ, an arts centre by Hopkins Architects organised around a four-storey atrium, and a limestone-fronted library extension by Wright & Wright. Photography is by Hufton + Crow.