The Spencer Building at Corpus Christi College, Oxford
The Spencer Building at Corpus Christi College, Oxford
We worked as structural engineers to create a new Passivhaus-certified Special Collections Centre and Library for Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
Corpus Christi is one of Oxford’s oldest colleges and its Special Collections are of international significance, containing more than 20,000 early printed books and 546 manuscripts, including works by Galileo and Erasmus. The Spencer Building consolidates this exceptional collection into a single, environmentally controlled home which also provides a range of carefully curated spaces with facilities designed to support world-leading research.
Designing to rigorous Passivhaus standards in a historic, Grade I listed site posed challenges, particularly in achieving high levels of insulation and airtightness within retained historic fabric. In collaboration with Passivhaus consultants Max Fordham, we placed the archive in a new insulated, airtight concrete bunker built against the old city wall, harnessing its thermal mass to create stable, low-energy environmental conditions for the collections.
As engineers, our key moves were to reuse foundations associated with previous buildings on the site for the new centre and separate the structural frame from the building’s thermal envelope, including incorporating existing facades into the new Spencer Building. The building’s predicted heating and total operational energy use aligns with the pilot version of the new Net Zero Carbon Building Standard.
Client Corpus Christi College
Architect Wright & Wright