The Ashmolean museum, Oxford
![Ancient world gallery at the museum](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/s6oVop5zhUUegWsrz6QDYm-415-80.jpg)
The Ashmolean museum in Oxford, once a dusty old labyrinth of higgledy piggledy rooms and illogical corridors, has been transformed almost beyond recognition in a £61m renovation by Rick Mather Architects.
The result - a light-infused six-level palatial showcase - not only doubles the exhibition space available to the museum, but also opens it up to a wider audience and allows an airing for previously unseen collections and artefacts.
And what artefacts they are: already home to the world’s best collection of pre-dynastic Egyptian materials and the largest and most important collection of Raphael drawings in the world, the Ashmolean can now boast a number of ‘new’ star attractions, including – our personal favourite – Laurence of Arabia’s robes.
The oldest museum in the oldest university in the English speaking world, the Ashmolean offers people – and Oxford’s aspiring academia – to be taught from the objects of history just as the Bodlean Library offer the opportunity to be taught from the texts.
Briefed simply to expand the space, Rick Mather explains he wanted to avoid doing a pastiche of the existing neoclassical Charles Cockerell structure because he felt it would “be an insult to him” and also it would have “looked stupid”.
Instead the solution is an elegant contemporary extension consisting of a rhythmic series of double and single height spaces, connected with mezzanines, panoptic windows and footbridges.
At every point the visitor is made to feel as though there is a way through and a connection to the outside world – avoiding the trapped feeling the old museum engendered. Here, “You always know you have an escape,” says Mather.
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Not that many people will be itching to leave the space, with its fascinating collections. Another of the previously unseen pieces, recently acquired by the museum, is the Titian painting ‘Amor Vincit Omnia’ – or ‘Love Conquers All’ – not seen in public since 1960.
Inside the new galleries the museum’s curators have worked with design company Metaphor to reorganise the collections in a new way, somewhat controversially forcing people to read the objects in a new context.
The strategy, called “Crossing Cultures Crossing Borders” deals with an exchange of cultural styles and objects and aims to show an interrelated world culture through history and demonstrate how civilisations developed alongside each other.
Bound to meet some scepticism amongst traditionalists, the concept works better in practice than we first expected – far from juxtaposing objects, it instead creates a seamless sequence between the galleries.
Described by the New York Times as the “$100m Museum”, the renovation has also brought the city of dreaming spires its first rooftop restaurant, reached via a cascading staircase that runs up through the new atrium.
Mezzanines, panoptic windows and footbridges connect the rooms
The cascading staircase that runs up through the new atrium
The renovation allows an airing for previously unseen collections and artefacts
Exhibition space available to the museum has been doubled
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
Feel at home at Auberge, Château La Coste's new inn for culture lovers
Auberge La Coste sits at the heart of the art-filled estate, minutes away from the joyful town of Aix-en-Provence
By Harriet Thorpe Published
-
This Nova Lima apartment is a Brazilian family oasis with striking Minas Gerais views
A Nova Lima apartment designed by Jacobsen Arquitetura celebrates its long, natural Minas Gerais vistas
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Commune’s sustainable personal care products look ‘quite unlike anything else’
Commune’s Somerset-made products stand out in the sustainable skincare crowd. Madeleine Rothery speaks with the brand’s co-founders Kate Neal and Rémi Paringaux
By Madeleine Rothery Published
-
Tour the Natural History Museum’s new gardens, a Jurassic lark in London
The Natural History Museum in London has unveiled two new gardens, with resident dinosaurs, after a transformation led by architects Feilden Fowles
By Bridget Downing Published
-
Drama Republic moves into a colourful, handcrafted workspace in London
For the new creative HQ of production company Drama Republic, Emil Eve Architects remodels a warehouse into office space in London’s Holborn
By Léa Teuscher Published
-
Hideaway House in London features timber panelling inspired by the New York hospitality scene
The elegantly refurbished Hideaway House by Studio McW in London features timber panelling inspired by Philip Johnson’s The Four Seasons Restaurant
By Léa Teuscher Published
-
‘Modern Buildings’ tours south-east London through a guide to post-war Blackheath and Greenwich
‘Modern Buildings: Blackheath and Greenwich’ is a detailed survey of a London borough’s rich trove of new modernist architecture
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Triangle House invites you to its inner world of colourful surprises
Triangle House by Artefact is a private home in Epsom, outside London, combining Caribbean style, colour and functionality
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Tour the refreshed Saint Andrew Holborn: an icon reveals its crisp new interior in London
DaeWha Kang reimagines Saint Andrew Holborn church through a sensitive architectural solution that blends tradition and modernity in London
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
A Suffolk house by Studio Bark pairs a fresh visual language with low-energy design
Suffolk house Water Farm is off-the-grid but defiantly on the map, a bold new object in the landscape with a strong visual impact and minimal carbon footprint
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Westminster Coroner's Court renovation delicately blends moments of softness and austerity
Westminster Coroner's Court gets a refresh and addition, courtesy of Lynch Architects and artist Brian Clarke
By Ellie Stathaki Published