Emms is a successful architect who holds a number of awards, one being the site architect for the construction of the Lowry in Salford Quays. One of his major projects is something which he spoke to us about, this being the refurbishment of Arne Jacobsens’ St. Catherine’s College, Oxford, which is now know as one of the 20th centuries most significant piece of architecture.
One of the main purposes for refurbishing this building was to put people in the heart of modernism, it already needed to be updated so this gave them the perfect opportunity to come up with new designs and also change in functions for technology and open plan spaces.
Arne Jacobsen, who is the architect, interior designer and also the product designer who was in charge of the refurbishment used materials such as concrete bricks, glass, metal, planting, glazing, plinth and timer for the exterior of the college. The interior was also mainly concrete and wooden beams.
As you can see from this image of the interior it consists of concrete flooring and wooden panels to make up the walls and ceiling, the furniture is also designed by Jacobsen, and it is very minimalist. All of his chair designs are mainly made from Oak and they are all simple. As you can see the ceiling is supported by the concrete beams which run along the room, Jacobsen wanted to keep a theme running throughout the refurbishment, this made him use simple materials and allowed for symmetry throughout.
As for the exterior of the college Jacobsen wanted to express how the college is surrounded by beautiful grounds and he wanted to incorporate planting into the exterior, to do this he played around with juxtaposing hedges against the pale yellow brick walls. He wanted you to be able to see as much of the grounds as possible when inside the building, this is when he thought about incorporating lots of large glass windows which would create a frame for these beautiful scenes as well as letting the gardens reflect onto these.
Peta-Louise Krog 