Oaklands College – Masterplan

Set within Green Belt landscape, the masterplan introduces a series of new academic buildings, landscape and improved connections that bring clarity and a clear identity to the estate. It establishes a new civic heart, enhances accessibility and creates a modern learning environment that supports the college’s educational ambitions, operational efficiency and long-term growth.

Oaklands College’s St Albans campus has developed incrementally over time, originally as a historic estate and evolving into an agricultural college. This growth has resulted in a dispersed collection of buildings of varying age, quality and suitability. While the college has thrived academically, many of the existing buildings no longer meet educational, environmental or accessibility standards. 

The masterplan responds to this by rationalising the campus, replacing outdated facilities and introducing a clear spatial structure. It retains and enhances the site’s landscape character while enabling a new generation of buildings that support modern teaching, learning and student life. 

The design approach creates a strong campus structure that prioritises clarity, connectivity and student experience. A series of new buildings are carefully positioned to define routes, spaces and a central college square, establishing a clear hierarchy across the site. 

The masterplan balances built form with landscape, enhancing the Green Belt setting while introducing usable outdoor spaces that support wellbeing. Flexibility is embedded throughout, allowing buildings and spaces to adapt over time in response to changing educational needs. 

A consistent architectural language and material strategy ensure cohesion across phases, while enabling individual buildings to express their specific functions. A restrained palette of robust, high-quality materials, predominantly brick, metal cladding and glazed elements, unify campus identity. Tones are carefully selected to sit comfortably within the landscape setting, drawing from the natural character of the site while responding to the historic context of the Mansion House. Layering, texture and variation within this palette provide richness and legibility across the campus, with more civic-facing buildings adopting greater transparency and articulation to reinforce key routes, entrances and shared spaces.

The masterplan has been developed in close collaboration with the College’s Senior Leadership Team, ensuring that spatial proposals respond to evolving educational and operational priorities. Engagement with students and staff has helped inform how spaces are used across the campus, allowing the proposals to reflect established patterns of learning, social interaction and student support.

A dedicated online platform provides an opportunity for the wider community to engage with the proposals and follow the progress of the masterplan as it develops. An important objective is to create facilities that can be shared by both the College and the local community.

This collaborative and iterative process has allowed the masterplan to remain flexible, supporting changes in curriculum and funding while maintaining a clear and deliverable long-term vision for the campus.