UG Interior Architecture - Year 3

TUTORS: Andrea Placidi, Helene Gullaksen, Michael Spooner

GUEST CRITICS: Orit Sarfatti, Fiammetta Buckley

STUDENTS: Esha Ahmed, Alexa Andrievschi, Maddie Boissier, Millie Colegrave, David Corcoran, Alana Crease, Will Davis, Will Esson, Amélie Fleming, Lottie Grimshaw, Molly Grist, Indigo Hancock, Holly Haxworth, Liya Hutchful, Hannah Luyen, Iza Nistor, Grac Patterson, Liss Rose, Max Shippey, Lily Short, Kaylei Strydom Nosella, Sude Turut, Lina Utterman, Millie Webb

Oxford Children Library - The Oxford Retreat Pub rehabilitation / Fishers Row

The studio brief for the Year 3 studio required comprehensive design proposals for Children Libraries not simply as reductive versions of a Public Library, but as welcoming, empowering, and ‘magical’ environments, where young inhabitants of Oxford aged from 3 to 12 could find a dedicated place of learning, playing, and imagination. Accessory functions were added to create a multifaceted structure to promote an active involvement:

- Story-telling and dedicated corners for role play (books’ activity packs)

- Creative workshops equipped to draw, make, and practice crafts

- Good quality video collections, video editing and photo equipment

- Open cooking facilities (under supervision) to stimulate food benefits

- Gentle physical training, flexible yoga spaces, soft reading positions

- Sensory spaces and ‘day-dreaming’ opportunities with views over nature

- Small and large groups seminar spaces, for debate and engagement

This year the Interior Architecture design studio (BA+MA), have investigated and discussed the role of libraries as repositories of knowledge and collections of useful resources, and their social function for empowering individuals and organisations from different backgrounds.

Public libraries are among the remaining strongholds of the endangered welfare state. In an age of privatised and disappearing civic space, they are precious open-access sites for reflection, slowness, and open-ended inquiry. As more public venues close, libraries have become shared community spaces hosting events, exhibitions, workshops, and offering a form of intellectual sanctuary. They are democratic in principle and practice, where access to knowledge is not determined by social status or wealth. In this sense, public libraries embody the aspiration of knowledge as a collective resource. When thoughtfully displayed, their collections invite comparison, critique, reinterpretation, and spark curiosity. A well-curated collection is never static; it is an active site of engagement, where meanings evolve

Indigo Hancock

Rewilding Childhood - Oxford Children's Library

“Through this project, I explored how architecture can address environmental responsibility through reconnecting children with everyday wildlife. By encouraging children to read about, support and observe ecological systems, the proposal aims to instil long-term care for the natural world and promote positive environmental change through education and exploration. ”

— Indigo Hancock

Across the UK, wildlife is vanishing. Since 1970, populations of many native species have dropped by over half, and one in six species is now at risk of extinction (State of Nature Report 2023). The loss is not only ecological but emotional, where there is a fading connection between children and the living world.

There is a profound lack of understanding of animals that causes people to be disconnected and lack empathy for the wildlife. The library's job is to teach and instil compassion for nature within the children, through observation, teaching, reading, storytelling, and making. This project begins from that urgency: to rewild both the land and the human imagination.

The ecological crises we face; biodiversity loss, climate change, habitat destruction, all stem from an anthropocentric worldview that treats nature as a resource rather than a community of living systems. The library embraces an animistic worldview, where non-human entities; animals and plants are recognised as active participants in the learning environment. This positions children as co-inhabitants rather than dominators of their environment. By reshaping how children perceive their relationship to the living world, the project helps cultivate a generation prepared to care for, rather than control, the planet, creating a space of ecological consciousness.

Rewilding in this project is about giving children everyday contact with nature in a city where many grow up without gardens or outdoor space. For children living in flats, the natural world is often something distant or unknown, which can lead to a lack of care or understanding of its importance. The library therefore acts as a shared ‘back garden’ within the city, where plants, insects and animals are part of daily routines of reading, play and learning. By spending time in these spaces, children begin to see nature as something familiar rather than separate, and something they have a role in looking after. This regular contact helps build emotional connection and responsibility, encouraging more thoughtful attitudes towards the environment as they grow up.

The library establishes a continuous cycle of ecological learning, where children move from reading to action, observation and reflection. Knowledge gained through books directly informs planting and making, with outcomes observed in the landscape. These experiences are then recorded and reinterpreted, deepening understanding and reinforcing the relationship between learning, environment and care.