The common room sits within the college’s modern riverside building just a short walk from the main campus and serves the 97 rooms on site.
However, this much unloved space was rarely being used and the college wanted us to bring this room back to its purpose, encouraging the students (second and third year undergraduates) to study and work collaboratively here.
The room also operates as a space for internal and external events throughout the year, so the scheme, layout and furniture had to be mindful of this.
” Did I tell you how happy I am about how the study area looks?! I am extremely satisfied and I have received great feedback!
Estates Manager, Oxford
The room was very dark and felt a little oppressive, so our primary task was to make it feel more open and bright. We achieved this firstly by removing the dark upholstered booth seating that imposed into the room and replaced all the dark wooden furniture with white-top tables to help bounce the light around the space. Secondly, we replaced the horizontal panelling on the lower half of the walls with vertical mouldings to give the illusion of height. Lastly, we introduced a bright and zesty colour scheme, using core colours for the faux leather upholstered chairs from the statement geometric wallpaper used on the curved feature wall.
It was important for the college that the layout of the room could be adjusted to house corporate events outside of term time, so we installed stackable tables and chairs that can easily be stored out of sight. In the summer, the room also acts as a canteen for international students, so we had commercial grade heavy duty luxury vinyl tiles fitted around the serving hatch and to the lower level of the room.
To have some control over the acoustics in the space, we tethered vinyl and carpet tiles of the same size and depth plank, leaving the main traffic areas in hard flooring but the outer floor space in carpet to help absorb the sound in the main study areas. We also had bespoke made sound absorbing wall panels in coordinating fabric to help reduce the echo. They also doubled-up as artwork, completing the scheme.
