Okay, so it’s not exactly a college, but it’s close. I’m referring to the new home for the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, which is under construction on the Marston Road in Oxford. From what I’ve heard from coworkers at ecoVeritas, it’s been in a perpetual state of development for the better part of a decade, and there was some suggestion that the delays were of a political nature (or financial, etc. – mysterious, at the very least!). I still don’t know if that’s the case, but I did learn of at least one other reason it’s taking so long.


(The following interactive map shows where the Centre is located. Scroll left/west to get to the city centre and the rest of the University.)


View Larger Map

The good folks involved in the project decided to open it for Oxford Open Doors 2010, as they did back in 2009 as well. We’d only been in Oxford a few days when last year’s Open Doors event took place, however, and I wasn’t even aware of the Centre’s existence at that point. (Plus, not having had Ori’s handy Ashmolean staff card back then, our biggest priority was to get into all the colleges for free.)


But now, a year later, I cycle past the OCIS every day on my way to and from work, and I was very curious about what it looked like on the inside. Certainly, even from the street, you can tell that it’s no ordinary building (unlike the new Brookes residence halls being built just up the road, which are, sadly, very “typical” in appearance, at least as far as 21st century university structures go).


Here’s what makes the OCIS special: they’re taking enough time, employing the right people, and using the proper materials to do it properly, no matter the cost. At the stage of construction they’re at now, everything is being done by hand; apprentice bricklayers working on the project are being given the opportunity to revive the dying art of building arches by hand. Governments from around the world are contributing materials and skills to the Centre, recognising the rare opportunity to participate in such a project. Specially picked stones from around the world are being used in the Centre’s construction, and nothing is being rushed for the sake of meeting a deadline. In fact, during the tour, I didn’t once hear anything about an expected completion date, so it really may just take “as long as it takes.”


Which is fine with me, because they’re building a structure that will survive five hundred years or more. They’ve taken the same care that the craftsmen who build the medieval Oxford colleges took. By choosing natural materials, they’re ensuring that the building can be repaired as necessary, and no part of the structure I saw during the tour looked like it would be impossible to repair if the original blueprints went missing a few centuries hence.


It’s rare that you see a building like this being constructed nowadays. James Howard Kunstler rages about this on a monthly basis, and while he’s somewhat extreme, he often makes a similar point. Just as there was no deadline mentioned during the tour, I didn’t hear anything about the finances of the project, either. While it’s well-known that the new Ashmolean cost £61 million (and even post-renovation it’s not exactly a building that will be able to survive unchanged for the next half-millennium), I can’t find anything – except for a vague “multi-million pound” – about the project’s total cost. I like this, though – just as Ori and I have learned about taking holidays and buying nice souvenirs of our time in Europe, the cost is soon forgotten. The building/souvenir/memories, however, last forever.


I could keep writing, but I’ll let my photos speak for themselves. You should read this article for a bit of background on the Centre, too (and a shout-out to the similar and familiar marriage of Islamic and Western architecture in Venice).

I’ve posted all my photos from the tour here. I hope you enjoy them!