John McAslan + Partners has completed the conversion of Osney Power Station, a disused industrial building in Oxford, into a learning space and accommodation for the University of Oxford's Saïd Business School.
The project retains the station's historic brick facades, preserving the most recognisable elements of a building that opened in 1892 as Oxford's first electrical power plant. The studio also extended the structure, including work to its metal-clad upper levels.
According to Dezeen's report on the project, the redevelopment gives an obsolete utility building a new institutional role rather than replacing it with a wholly new structure.
The scheme illustrates a recurring challenge in adaptive reuse: upgrading a historic industrial shell for contemporary education and hospitality uses while keeping its original material character legible. For cities with former factories, warehouses and infrastructure buildings, the project underlines how retained facades can form the starting point for a substantially changed programme.