{"id":584807,"date":"2025-11-21T13:47:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T13:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/584807\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T13:47:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T13:47:20","slug":"nbbj-clads-university-of-life-and-mind-building-in-rippling-stone-panels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/584807\/","title":{"rendered":"NBBJ clads University of Life and Mind Building in rippling stone panels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rippling stone<\/a> panels based on the shape of a brainwave clad the Life and Mind Building at the University of Oxford<\/a>, completed by architecture studio NBBJ<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bringing together departments of biology and experimental psychology, the Life and Mind Building combines teaching spaces and lecture halls with research laboratories and offices.<\/p>\n

\"ExteriorNBBJ has completed the Life and Mind Building at the University of Oxford<\/p>\n

NBBJ<\/a> designed the 25,000-square-metre building for Oxford University Development<\/a> \u2013 a partnership between the university and Legal & General<\/a>. It is among the largest projects ever undertaken by the institution.<\/p>\n

The building comprises five storeys organised around a full-height, glazed atrium at its centre, described by the studio as a “social and spatial spine” that unites communal, research and teaching spaces via balconies and terraces.<\/p>\n

\"PeopleIts exterior is clad in rippling stone panels. Photo by Richard Chivers<\/p>\n

This glazed atrium acts as a linking volume for the centre’s two wings, which form a V-shape around an entrance plaza, where stepped planting and a cylindrical glass elevator allow entry into both the ground and lower ground floors.<\/p>\n

“Conceived as a living framework for discovery, the building’s architecture choreographs movement, light, and interaction across a series of interconnected levels,” said the practice.<\/p>\n

\"RoofA roof terrace tops the building. Photo by Richard Chivers<\/p>\n

Externally, the Life and Mind Building’s outward-facing elevations have been finished with chunky, stone-clad mullions, between which are windows framed by dark brown ribbed metal panels and fins.<\/p>\n

Above the entrance are stone panels imprinted with a rippling surface pattern, which was derived from a two-second brainwave reading taken by research fellow Sage Boettcher.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Axonometric<\/p>\n

Wright & Wright adds “calm and confident” extension to University of Oxford library\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

“It serves as both a time capsule of scientific progress and a poetic expression of the building’s purpose: to explore the mind, nature, and the systems that connect them,” said NBBJ.<\/p>\n

A sawtooth roof tops the centre’s western wing, while the eastern wing is crowned by the central glazed atrium extending to form a volume of workspaces opening onto an external terrace shaded by large stone-clad louvres.<\/p>\n

\"AtriumA glazed atrium connects its two wings. Photo by Richard Chivers<\/p>\n

According to NBBJ, occupants of the building are “never more than one level away” from green space \u2013 be it the planted entrance plaza and roof terrace or a series of potted trees in the atrium.<\/p>\n

“This biophilic strategy is integral to the building’s ethos of the \u2018life and mind’,” said the studio. “It supports mental wellbeing, enhances air quality, and reinforces the building’s ecological identity.”<\/p>\n

\"LectureIt contains lecture halls, research labs and offices<\/p>\n

The completion of the Life and Mind building closely follows the opening of the 25,300-square-metre Schwarzman Centre at the University of Oxford,<\/a> which was designed by London studio Hopkins Architects and is clad in traditional Clipsham stone.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere at the university, Wright & Wright recently added a “calm and confident” extension to Corpus Christi College Library<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The photography is by Ty Cole<\/a> unless otherwise stated.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rippling stone panels based on the shape of a brainwave clad the Life and Mind Building at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3939],"tags":[4021,4020,4022,2266,393,77,184490,126129,126130,83442,16,15,12060,29958],"class_list":{"0":"post-584807","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-design","11":"tag-education","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-nbbj","15":"tag-sectionall","16":"tag-sectionarchitecture","17":"tag-stone","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-universities","21":"tag-university-of-oxford"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115588003217220287","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}