Better by design

But not only does the finished project score off the scale in terms of the ‘wow factor’, it actually seems to defy the laws of physics.

Incredibly, he has managed to double the amount of display space without increasing the building’s ‘footprint’ or total outline size.

Consequently, a tour of the new building brings to mind Doctor Who’s Tardis.

Although the museum’s famous facade appears almost untouched — with the exception of spectacular new revolving glass doors — step inside and a vast interior is on view.

Mr Mather (pictured left) has heard the comparisons to the Time Lord’s travelling machine before and loves the idea.

“That is one of the things I like most about it. When you come through the entrance you don’t know there is anything behind the original, it is almost invisible but it is a huge piece,” he nodded.

The sheer scale of the interior is more evident because of Mr Mather’s liberal use of glass and double-height galleries, which allows the visitor to see through walls and display cabinets.

“It means you can look in at the collections and we hope people find things by serendipity,” Mr Mather said.

“It is also a physical manifestation of the Ashmolean’s theme which is ‘Crossing Cultures, Crossing Time’.

“Because as you go through the building and take the bridges through the other galleries, you will be doing exactly that,” he added.

He believes that museums should be really easy for people to use: “My perfect museum would be one where you didn’t need signs and I think this will come close to that because it has got a very simple organisation.

“You will be able to come through the main door and if you just walk around — the museum will reveal itself in an open way.”

The other reason he chose to use so much glass is that it allows people to see out of the museum.

“When they are suffering cultural fatigue, they can glimpse the sky or the city so they don’t feel trapped within,” he said.

The new building not only uses natural light, it is positively awash with it, something that is unusual in museums where vulnerable exhibits sometimes require protection from the damaging effects of sun.

Mr Mather says natural light is important, for several reasons.

“You get a sense of being able to see out and you also get good light into the galleries.

“Every time you turn a corner in the museum, you will be connected to natural light which opens it all up.

“The curse of a lot modern buildings is that they are really deep and you are in this maze that you can’t see out of. I hate that,” he added.

Right from the start, he was keen his design should not overpower Charles Cockerell’s original 1845 building.

“The Cockerell is a great piece and some people believe he was the most important architect of the 19th century,” he pointed out.

Mr Mather is no stranger to tackling projects where he has to marry modern practical design with revered, listed buildings and his work, including on Greenwich’s National Maritime Museum, has won widespread acclaim.

The snag is that it is much harder to work within the confines of an existing building, rather than start designing a new one from scratch.

“I kind of liked the challenge,” Mr Mather joked in the soft American accent that is a legacy of his Seattle roots.

The Ashmolean project was complicated by the fact the site was completely land-locked, surrounded by seven other buildings.

“The construction company has been great but it was quite hard because they had absolutely nowhere to put their materials,” Mr Mather explained.

They were also limited because there were only two ways through from the original Cockerell into the old building.

Anyone who had visited the old Ashmolean will remember there were dozens of changes of level, right from the moment of entering the building.

“In the old entrance area, you had to go up to come down, something which I remember people in my architecture school being failed for creating,” he said.

They persuaded English Heritage to allow them to take out the two original steps there as Mr Mather saw it as essential, not only for the sake of convenience but for disabled access.

He is known for staying true to a building’s heritage as well as sense of location.

His design for Eastbourne’s much-lauded Towner Art Gallery has curving white walls that echo the white cliffs of the south coast and views across the town and the Sussex Downs.

“We wanted to make sure that the Ashmolean couldn’t be anywhere else except Oxford,” he said.

“The saw-tooth plan allows windows with views from the offices and galleries to St Giles.

I do not think you will get tired of being in the building,” he added.

That is something of an understatement. The interior is truly beautiful with a series of huge double-height spaces and a stunning central staircase that sweeps up through five floors.

As you walk up or down them you can gaze through the glass walls to the galleries beyond.

The roof-top restaurant was integral to Mather’s vision and even includes a mini grass lawn to relax on while looking out over the dreaming spires.

“Having climbed up that staircase and risen to the top, you are in a restaurant that looks out onto a roof garden that you can go out into,” he said.

With past projects, such as London art gallery The Wallace Collection, he said they have faced pressure to design something that was a pastiche of the original.

Mr Mather managed to successfully convince them to allow him to do something frankly modern, a gamble on their part that paid off as the compliments rolled in.

He is certainly not afraid to create bold, contemporary structures to team with the most hallowed of classical buildings and manages to pull it off effortlessly.

His firm designed the Sloane Robinson building at Keble in 2002 and an ingenious new multi-purpose auditorium at Corpus Christi College earlier this year.

“We were told the reason we won the Corpus contract was that we were the only ones that could get the building onto the site they asked for. Everyone else said there wasn’t room,” he said.

“It was built into the old city wall and where it steps out we took the ramparts of the wall around. It is almost a landscape feature and then we have a roof garden on it.

“Corpus are happy but I would like to think that is not because it is neutral but because it is a positive change.

“It is noticeable on the building what the new style and old style work is,” he pointed out. “It is the same on Keble, in that you can see the new bits clearly”, he added.

Mr Mather has a particular love of designing for museums or art galleries and is also masterminding the construction of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia.

“As an architect, a museum is a great thing because it is a series of spaces and abstract spaces that have to work really well, people have to move through them,” he said.

“I really like doing interior architecture.

Not the decoration but the organisation of the space.

“It comes down to the major things that architecture is about. It is about how people experience and move through the building.

You can give a variety of big spaces and nice spaces and it is about how they come together as a coherent whole,” he added.

His work with the Ashmolean has brought him to Oxford frequently during the past three years and he clearly admires the city, both for its architecture and atmosphere.

“There is such a wealth of history here as well as an active, living centre and because the scale is quite medieval in parts, it makes a lovely city to walk around.

“The colleges are wonderful. You go in through a gate and have this whole new world.

“And the way they are built on the perimeter with these interior spaces, they are really special. I love that aspect,” he added.

Mr Mather’s firm is also working on a contract to design a new library and archive building for Queen’s College, due to be completed in 2012, so he will continue to be a regular visitor to the City.

Returning to the Ashmolean, what does he think the original architect of the Ashmolean, Charles Cockerell, would make of what he has done?

“The spatial organisation is very clear and simple in his original building and we have stuck to that principle. We have taken his long views, his access through and combined them with our features to complement his building. Yes, I think he would like it.”