Four impressive individualistic buildings in Oxford-Not “copying the Gothic”.

The fee for this event is £8 to cover costs agreed with our guide Geoffrey Tyack.
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The main idea behind visiting these four individualistic buildings in Oxford is to think about how availability of space influences and maybe releases an Architects creative vision. Alongside this general aim is thinking about the restrictions imposed by feeling a need to 'copy the gothic' ( or more accurately 'copying tradition'). The visit will be led buy our friendly historian Geoffrey Tyack so please do ask him lots of questions.
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We are going to visit in the same afternoon four striking individualistic buildings in Oxford have definitely broken away from the idea of copying the past or indeed just "copying the Gothic".
The buildings we will visi aret:

● The "goldfish bowl" bar at Keblel college.(1977)
●Blavatnik School of Government (2016).
●The Zaha Hadid connect way at St. Anthony's College.(2015).
●Nazarin Shah Conference Centre at Worcester College (2017).
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The "goldfish bowl" bar at Keble: built in 1977 and affectionately named by the students this is the oldest structure we shall visit but even so it is still squarely in what Charles Jenks has christened the post-modern era.

The Nazarin Shah Conference Centre was opened in 2017 and was on the short list for the Sterling Prize that year. It's clearly not a creation that breaks away from the 'tyranny of the rectangle' but the common simple rectangle is both extended and extruded and counter-pointed with curves. The whole property exudes a quality that is reminiscent of a giant piece of Cabinet-work. One question we will be asking here is just how much the Freedom of space offered here by the setting of this center has allowed the Architects to be expressive and creative.

We have visited the Blavatnik School of Government building on at least three occasions in the past because it's so dramatic and different. It was on the short list for the Stirling Prize in the year it opened in 2016 and here is a quote from the RIBA about the nature of the building:
‘Inside, the building is quite simply breathtaking. It is one of those rare moments in architecture when the spirit soars. This is a modern cathedral of learning that at the same time stimulates, soothes and excites. […] It is a truly inspirational piece of design and one so fitting for its purpose’
RIBA Judges

The Investcprp connect-way building at St. Anthony's College.
This dramatic building completed in 2015 was designed by the acclaimed architect Zaha Hadid. Far from being on the short list for any Stirling Prize this building was described as a "writhing metallic slug that does its best to maul the two historic buildings between which its contorted body is slung" and was voted the worst new building of the year.