Largest building project ever undertaken by Oxford Uni heads to planning

Published by

Nicky Godding

The largest building project ever undertaken by the University of Oxford has completed its second public consultation and architects NBBJ will submit a planning application this month, with works starting on site next June and completion in September 2024.

The reportedly £202 million facility will be home to a new, world-class centre for Life and Mind Sciences on the site occupied by the empty Tinbergen Building on South Parks Road in the city.

The Life and Mind Building will be the largest building project the University has ever undertaken and will become home to the Department of Experimental Psychology and a new Department of Biology, combining the existing Departments of Plant Sciences and Zoology.

Demolition of the University of Oxford’s Tinbergen Building on South Parks Road began in May.

The Life and Mind Building will provide laboratories for undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers, as well as lecture theatres, specialised support laboratories and opportunities for public engagement with the university’s research.

The Tinbergen building was the University’s largest teaching and research building before its closure in February 2017 due to the discovery of asbestos throughout the structure.

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.