THE £62m refurbishment of the Ashmolean Museum has landed one of Britain’s top architectural awards.

Judges of the Royal Institute of British Architecture awards for architectural excellence said the “world-class” museum now had a worthy home.

Corpus Christi College’s new auditorium, in Merton Street, which was also designed by Rick Mather Architects, and Wootton Place, near Woodstock, designed by Yiangou Architects, also received awards.

All three are now among 102 buildings in the UK and Europe in the running for the RIBA Stirling Prize, to be presented at The Roundhouse, London, on October 2.

Last night, museum director Dr Christopher Brown said he was delighted with the accolade.

He said: “Everyone involved in the project is thrilled. The real credit must go the architect, Rick Mather, who is a genius and has done a wonderful job.

“We are receiving on average 100,000 visitors a month and to have a thriving Ashmolean will benefit the city as a whole.”

The Ashmolean project is also on the shortlist for the £100,000 Art Fund Prize, the UK’s largest single arts prize, to be revealed on June 30.

The RIBA judges, who include broadcaster Mark Lawson, said in their citation: “This building clears the bar by a mile to give a world-class institution a worthy new home.

“Entered through the Cockerel façade into a day-lit atrium, which is modest in plan yet dramatic in section, rising through six floors with a subtly curved staircase cascading down one wall, the atrium unifies the museum.

“The route navigates its way through 39 new galleries with a clever interleaving of double and single height spaces creating a rich spatial journey.”

The Corpus Christi building incorporates a section of Oxford’s 13th-century city wall. The judges said: “Within such an onerous set of constraints, the resultant building is both an essay in conservation and a work of great clarity and invention.”

The renovation of Wootton Place by builders Symm & Co is praised for the new swimming pool pavilion in the walled garden.

The judges said: “This beautiful floating building that almost disappears has a wonderful, ephemeral quality that is rare in architecture.”

RIBA president Ruth Reed said: “In the midst of the deepest recession in the 45-year history of the RIBA awards, this year’s winners demonstrate that although times might be hard for architects, there are still great buildings being built throughout the country and overseas.”

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