Introduction
Today the University of Oxford attracts students with ferocious academic appetites in a melting pot that builds on the past and embraces the future. Medieval buildings have been supplemented with science parks that are at the very cutting edge of technology. A leading poll has just placed Oxford as the best university in Britain. 26 British prime ministers, along with global leaders, bishops and Nobel Prize winners have been forged at Oxford.
This ability for change is masked by the ancient and romantic buildings that many colleges inhabit; designed from the outset to be secluded and peaceful places of learning. A sleepy almost dormant atmosphere can greet visitors when they first arrive, camouflaging vast achievement and global influence. Thousand upon thousand of the world’s brightest students study in the city, but usually only a handful will ever be noticeable. The colleges are private places, self contained, providing all the essentials from accommodation to laundry facilities, libraries to bars, learned tutors to light hearted entertainments. Many occupy huge enclosed secretive spaces that can only be accessed by gatehouses guarded by porters.
So hidden is this academic world that if you ask townsfolk, who have lived in Oxford all their lives where St Catherine’s College is, or Campion Hall, many will not be able to tell you. On the other hand if you ask a student where Oxford City football ground is, chances are you will be greeted with a blank expression. Oxford has two parallel communities living side by side, each going about their business almost independent of each other. A third transient community is formed by the hoards of tourists attracted to medieval Oxford, so addicted to all things ancient ...
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...d patience, during which time architectural fashions changed. Gothic gently drifted towards Jacobean only to be supplanted by classical, which itself came under attack from a resurgent Gothic during the Victorian era. You think attack too strong a word? The battle between the two styles created many divisions between academics that never healed, with both parties going to extraordinary lengths to get their way. Secret demolitions took place at Magdalen during the long vacation, much to the fury of uninformed members.
Passions were further inflamed with the emergence of a fabulous, but demented architectural hybrid style that mixed the two, a kind of Victorian Jacobean that ignored rules with both genius and wit. The Examination Schools (1882) designed by Thomas Jackson and Oriel’s Rhodes Building (1911) designed by Basil Champneys are just two sumptuous examples.
The most important aesthetic and philosophical style was developed in the eighteenth century, yet this style did not reach its apex until the nineteenth. With Christian elements and strong moral the movement appealed to the newly wealthy middle classes. The notable increase in prosperity that accompanied the Industrial Revolution was largely based on the accumulative benefits of inexpensive imports for the colonies. This new found affluence and status for the middle-class, has naturally revealed in the types of homes they lived in and the style in which they decorated and ornamented them. Unsure how to begin this new style of living, they chose architecture and furnishings that had previously been only for the aristocracy and the upper class. The critics of high Victorian style, known as the Aesthetic Movement, objected not only to the style and quality of machine-made furnishings but also to the manner in which they were used in the home. The typical middle-class drawing room was crammed full of furniture, fabrics were used in abundance and every available surface was overflowing with knickknacks. Such displays were a means of showing off their new-found cultural interests, prosperity and status. They were also in accord with the fashionable notion that bareness in a room was in poor taste. Victorian Gothic style was zenithed in the mid-nineteenth century by those who yearned to return to the complexity of the skilled craftsmanship and design that prevailed in the Middle Ages.
In 1834, when a fire nearly completely demolished the old Palace of Westminster, Britain had a chance to redefine what British architecture was (Richardson p. 111-112). Although throughout Europe Classicism and the Greek and Roman Revival had had a stronghold on secular buildings, by the early 1800 Neo-Gothic was starting to be seen as a nationalistic style of architecture, something that should, together with language, be national (Barry, p.114). While in France the Gothic Revival was mainly used for secular buildings, in Britain it was mainly used for ecclesiastical buildings (Barry, p. 110). It was into this world that August Welby Nothmore Pugin (1812-52) was born.
In contrast, the architecture at the time represented wealth and stability, traditional enduring values. During this time, there was a lot of social change that came from science and philosophy. The kick from the Industrial Revolution accelerated the trend, even though ideas from the Gothic Style started it. Steam-powered sawmills could now create elaborate materials, cheaper and faster. As a result, houses became increasingly ornate. Lower income families could finally afford tr...
At traditional colleges today, students live on campus at some point of their academic career and one physically attends lectures. In “The Future of College?”, Graeme Wood reports Minerva College as an alternative to traditional colleges that eliminates the problems in higher education. Minerva is a revolutionary college that challenges the traditional way of learning by operating online and minimizing the traditional campus size. In “Why We Should Fear University Inc.,” Fredrik De Boer discusses the way colleges are mismanaged and has led to students feeling entitled to avoid discussions due to their feelings. He also points out the continuous competition, to keep the appearance of institutions updated, is being funded by the costly of tuition. The Minerva College experience could replicate the traditional college student experience at FAU because although it is online, students are forced to interact with teachers and one another. Also, the tuition is less costly than at traditional colleges and guarantees diversification.
The college, one of the richest in Cambridge, is situated in the city centre, close to the market square, and is home to 250 postgraduates and 500 undergraduates of which the majority are men by some 14%. The ground plan sits in a rough oblong whose sides are not parallel, a feature that seems to have been embraced by subsequent builders with ranges not square to each other. Despite the apparent small physical size of the original main site, all students can be accommodated in college owned property, although it is scattered all around Cambridge. Tudor style St Michael’s Court, designed in 1903 by Aston Webb, is just across the road (T...
Michael Fazio, Marian Moffett, and Lawrence Wodehouse. A World History of Architecture. London: McGraw Hill, 2008.
The Victorian era was a period of time that lasted between 1837-1901. This represented the reign of Queen Victoria over the United Kingdom and also showcases how the name of the era was actually derived. The beauty of this period was marked by its peace, prosperity and “refined sensibilities”. This was a time in history that saw individuals ignore rationality and linger on ideas of romance and mysticism. Of course, this brought about a great appreciation of art and led to the intricately detailed styles employed in architecture and design. These beliefs survived the passage of time and still inspire a new generation in the creation of style and design.
Kostof, Spiro, and Greg Castillo. A History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals. New York: Oxford UP, 1995. Print.
Day, David. "Oxford in Wonderland." Queen's Quarterly Fall 2010: 403-24. ProQuest. Web. 6 May 2014 .
The Open University (2003) U212, Childhood, Video 1, Band 7 ‘Painted babies’ Milton Keynes: The Open University
The questions to be asked are what remains of national styles today and how did we get here? What is of a particular interest is how “British” architecture has abando...
Nowhere is this more evident than in the design styles found not only in art, but in architecture and interior design. The twentieth century has been a time of great innovation, and yet, very few eras have seen so many stylistic revivals. The popularity of these classical styles has often superceded that of the more experimental, modern ideas, reinforcing the idea that aesthetic beauty is absolutely timeless.
Jencks briefly explains post-modern aesthetics from their modernist predecessors’ and pinpoints the instant of modernism’s death, writing “Happily, we can date the death of Modern Architecture to a precise moment in time… Modern Architecture died in St. Louis, Missouri, on July 15, 1972 at 3:32 p.m. (or thereabouts)...” (23). Unlike Jencks, literary scholars talk about the first, most original or famous representatives of modernism, but they completely avoid pinpointing an ultimate end to the movement. Due to architecture’s visual character and Jencks’ early, authoritative, and internationally read scholarship, the differences between modern and post-modern aesthetics are often clearer in architecture than in literature. Architecture provides a helpful visual counterpoint for modern and post-modern aesthetics in literature. According to him, architectural post-modernism favours pluralism, complexity, double coding, and historical contextualism.
Colleges and universities provide both residential and online facilities for groups of selected students while community colleges provide inventive approaches to provide an education to the underprepared or underprivileged populations. Institutions of higher education both domestically and abroad have three universal key missions including research, teaching and service. Institutions that emphasize research have yielded unparalleled advancements in every field including science, medicine, engineering, etc. which have both served the greater good and brought global acclaim and praise to individual institutions. These monumental breakthroughs have been the mortar laying the foundation for research-centered institutions around the world with research being one of the fundamental values and purposes of higher education. While many distinguished four-year institutions have centered their focus on research, others have emphasize...
Starkey, M. (2009) What is a University? Explaining the Rise of Universities in Medieval Europe, an Education Studies essay, 9th March, School of Education, University of Northampton, online at: