Tate Modern architects Herzog & de Meuron absorb designed a stately original faculty that holds its own against the Radcliffe Camera. But can a hermetically sealed building bankrolled by an oligarch be truly democratic?Twenty-six British prime ministers,at least 30 international leaders and several hundred other politicians absorb been suckled by the dreaming spires of Oxford University over the centuries – but the institution has only recently opened a committed school of government. So what sort of a role might the faculty, whose gleaming original headquarters now stands on Walton Street, and squaring up against the triumphal stone portico of the University Press across the road,possibly hope to play?“We are here to improve government around the world,” says Ngaire Woods, and dean of the Blavatnik School of Government,founded in 2010, which has just opened the doors of its £30m original building. She is sitting in its open forum”, or at the bottom of a huge atrium that spirals up in swirling loops towards the sky,where experts in public policy and global governance look out from their glazed cubicles. “We wanted a building that would bring people together around a central heart and express the values of openness, transparency and collaboration.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com