New Ashmolean Museum

The Ashmolean Museum's collections are among the most varied and extensive in the country. It possesses the most important collection of pre-Dynastic Egyptian material outside Cairo, the only great collection of Minoan antiquities outside Heraklion, the largest and most important collection of Raphael drawings in the world and the greatest Anglo Saxon collections outside the British Museum.

The new scheme involves the removal of the poor existing Victorian buildings behind the Cockerell building-built to house a rapidly growing collection under Evans, and later piecemeal accretions. These combined to give a very confusing route for the museum visitor.

The new building has six storeys, with a floor area of 9000m², 4000m² of which provides 100 per cent more display space. In addition to the new display space a new entrance from St Giles, and an Education Centre, Conservation studios and loading bay have also been created. The new museum space is built to modern standards, using an environmentally aware and efficient servicing strategy. The building is organised by two major axes established by Cockerell, creating a clear route throughout the building and unifying the entire museum and collection in a coherent manner.

Two staircase lightwells are naturally lit with large windows and roof lights. Natural light is filtered vertically through the building to the lower ground level via inter-connecting, double-height galleries. A new rooftop café terrace gives views over the 'dreaming spires' of Oxford.

The practice is undertaking a second phase of development, redeveloping the Ashmolean Egypt Galleries due for completion in Autumn 2011.

"This building clears the bar by a mile to give a world-class institution a worthy new home. Entered through the Cockerell façade into a day-lit atrium, which is modest in plan yet dramatic in section, rising through six floors with a subtly curved staircase cascading down one wall, the atrium unifies the museum. The route navigates its way through 39 galleries with a clever interleaving of double and single height spaces creating a rich spatial journey."

Mark Lawson, RIBA Awards Judge 2010

Supported by
Heritage Lottery Fund
The Linbury Trust
Wolfson Foundation
Clore Duffield Foundation
Leventis Foundation
Arrow Charitable Trust
Clockworkers Foundation
Garfield Weston Foundation

Press and Awards

2011

Civic Trust Award
Travel + Leisure Design Awards - Best Museum

2010

Shortlisted RIBA Stirling Prize
RIBA Award
Building Magazine Project of the Year
Oxford Preservation Trust Award

Bell'Europa
Nuova vita per Ashmolean
Graham Tite - May 11

Blueprint
Best British Buildings of the 21st Century
Jan 11

Architecture 10
RIBA Buildings of the Year
Tony Chapman - Jan 11

Architectural Record
Ashmolean Museum
Charles Linn - 2 Jun 10

Art Quarterly
The Ashmolean Museum
Maev Kennedy - Mar 10

Museums Journal
Review: The Ashmolean, Oxford
Nichola Johnson - Feb 10

Financial Times
Museums vie for Art Fund prize
Peter Aspden - 18 Feb 09

Architecture Today
Collected Works
Ros Diamond - Jan 10

The Burlington Magazine
The Ashmolean transformed
Richard Shone - Jan 10

RIBA Journal
Seeing is believing
Pamela Buxton - Jan 10

London Review of Books
At the Ashmolean
Peter Campbell - Dec 09

Los Angeles Times
The new Ashmolean
Henry Chu - 30 Nov 09

The Independent
Ashmolean Dining Room reviewed
Tracey MacLeod - 28 Nov 09

The Guardian
Light Touch
James Hall - 14 Nov 09

Süddeutsche
Hell leuchtet Apoll
Alexander Menten -14 Nov 09

The Independent
The very model of a modern museum
Thomas Sutcliffe - 13 Nov 09

BBC Radio 4
Saturday Review
Thomas Sutcliffe - 7 Nov 09

BBC News
Facelift for Ashmolean museum
Tim Muffett - 6 Nov 09

Financial Times
The world in a new light
Robin Blake - 6 Nov 09

The Guardian
Oxford's extraordinary old treasure chest revels in its new incarnation
Simon Jenkins - 6 Nov 09

The Oxford Times
Ashmolean
5 Nov 09

Arts Industry
Oxford's Ark sails into the 21st Century
Simon Tait - Nov 09

The Architects' Journal
Inner space
Felix Mara - 5 Nov 09

BBC
The Culture Show
Andrew Graham-Dixon 5 Nov 09

The Telegraph
The reopening of the Ashmolean: infinite riches in a larger room
Christopher Howse 2 Nov 09

The Telegraph
Ashmolean becomes a glittering exhibit
Richard Dorment 2 Nov 09

Apollo
The Ashmolean transformed
Philippa Glanville - Nov 09

The Observer
A phoenix rises from the Ashmolean
Stephen Bayley - 1 Nov 09

The Sunday Times
First class from Oxford
Hugh Pearman - 1 Nov 09

Channel 4 News
Ashmolean reopens after £61m revamp
James Blake - 29 Oct 09

BBC Radio 4 Front Row
The Ashmolean reopens after a 61-million-pound demolition and rebuilding project
John Wilson - 29 Oct 09

Building Design
Cultures Crossed
Niall Hobhouse - 30 Oct 09

The Independent
Future Classic
Jay Merrick - 29 Oct 09

Guardian
On The Up: the Ashmolean museum strides into the 21st century
Jonathan Glancey - 26 Oct 09

Financial Times
Treasure Trove
Peter Aspden - 29 Oct 09

Building Design
Big entrances, grand views
Amanda Birch - 9 Oct 09

Building Design
Concrete proves crucial to Mather's Ashmolean redevelopment
Amanda Birch - 26 June 09

Museum Practice Magazine
Clear Vision
Javier Pes - Summer 09

The Wall Street Journal
The art world's global view
Kelly Crow - 2 Jan 09

Guardian
Architecture 2009: What not to miss
Jonathan Glancey - 30 Dec 08

Telegraph
Heroic collections find a worthy setting
Giles Worsley - 8 Nov 05

Design Week
Metaphor wins three-year job for Ashmolean Museum
Mike Exon - Aug 05