"The internal architecture is unlike anything I have ever seen before. It is utterly elegant, and the whole building has a such an exciting and special feel to it.”
These are the words of one of the hundreds of visitors that last Saturday had the exciting opportunity to explore the new Blavatnik School of Government building as part of our first “Open Day”.
On a surprisingly sunny Saturday we let eager neighbours, architecture enthusiasts, and people across Oxford through our doors, and we were delighted to be able to share with them the beauty of the open forum and the impressive views of Oxford from the fourth floor terrace.
Staff and students ran tours throughout the day, guiding visitors through some of the building's most interesting features, pointing out architectural details and facts about our solar panels and green roof, as well as conveying all their enthusiasm to be part of the Blavatnik School and its work.
Keen visitors discovered what inspired the architects in the design, hearing directly from John O’Mara, project director and associate at Herzog & de Meuron. Since we are the University of Oxford’s newest department, this was also an opportunity for people to understand more about the School's mission thanks to an introduction by our dean Ngaire Woods.
Our objective was for people to leave informed and inspired about the building and about the Blavatnik School, and we were overwhelmed by the positive response: the atmosphere was buzzing, visitors showed lots of interest and many happy faces could be seen all around. Some of these positive reactions are reported in this article in the Oxford Times (and Oxford Mail), and also throughout social media – we've collected the highlights in Storify.
We hope this is just the first of a series of events to invite people in (for example Oxford Open Doors) so keep checking our website for news but in the meantime, check our events, talks and seminars: most of them are open to the public and the topics are timely and fascinating.
