The Global Leadership Centre at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School reinvents an old building for a new model of education. The Centre offers intensive residential courses attended by senior executives, for which the best settings are well-appointed, immersive environments where learning, networking and living are integrated. That has been created within the disused Osney Power Station, Oxford’s first electricity plant – a decaying piece of industrial heritage with considerable historic significance. The central aim of the project was to reconcile the building’s industrial scale and character with the needs of a contemporary learning environment, while retaining the memory of its history.

Expression and identity
The former power station stands on a canalised section of the Thames, a short walk from the business school itself in a residential area west of Oxford’s city centre. Its oldest part, dating from 1892, has an ornate brick facade to the river. Over the next 60 years it was extended outwards and upwards, notably with a pair of tall, gabled metal sheds that rise behind. Conversion has extended the complex again, while preserving the appearance of the existing buildings and the contrast between a heavy masonry base and the lightweight construction of the upper parts.

Residential accommodation is provided on newly built floors within the former sheds, which have been extended towards the river, and in an extension whose height and gabled profile echo the existing structure. To maintain their familiar monolithic appearance, these volumes are wrapped in a diaphanous ‘veil’ of grey perforated metal that admits light to 120 bedrooms within and protects the privacy of neighbouring residents. Low-rise extensions at either end of the buildings respond to the scale of nearby residential streets and are formed in heavily modelled brickwork that echoes the ornate piers of the 19th-century facade.

Landscape of learning
Internally, the vast turbine hall is recast as a triple-height, open ‘agora’ – the building’s main entrance foyer and circulation hub, as well as a place for informal learning, adjacent to more formal social and teaching rooms. This gathering space is given a unique character by giant steel trusses and a gantry crane that have been retained to celebrate the building’s heritage, along with exposed masonry walls. Against this rugged backdrop, new timber and glass insertions form a sequence of stairs, bridges, and balconies that foster connection and exchange – qualities central to the Centre’s executive education model.

Natural light is brought deep into the building through a glazed courtyard carved from the centre of one of the shed structures. From here, views extend into a tall, light-filled library, where contemporary finishes are balanced by the retained industrial shell in a rich dialogue between old and new. 

Environmental and social impact
Sustainability is integral to the design of its building. The project adopted a fabric-first strategy drawing on Passivhaus standards, combining improved insulation, airtightness, and high-efficiency services. Photovoltaic panels and air-source heat pumps provide renewable energy, while landscaped gardens and green roofs enhance biodiversity and create outdoor spaces for the use of both students and local residents.

Retention of the existing structure represents a significant saving in embodied carbon. Preserving the familiar form of the power station not only enabled the accommodation of an extensive and complex programme, but also something important to the identity of place and collective memory.

In an innovative, stimulating educational setting, the Global Leadership Centre mirrors the principles the school promotes: collaborative learning; courageous exploration of new ideas and approaches; and the central role that environmental stewardship and social responsibility should play in both business and education.