Hox Haus is a stand-out student clubhouse and study amenity within 500-bed student village Hox Park: a mixed use, masterplanned development, set within extensive countryside, on the fringes of Egham in Surrey. The overall 67-acre development is made up of luxury houses, a high-end senior living village, affordable housing and student accommodation.
Brief
Moorfield Group briefed 74 to act as architects and interior designers for campus centrepiece, Hox Haus, to act as the point of arrival and socialising and studying amenity for students attending Royal Holloway, University of London. The facility was to be sited within a two-storey Grade II former gymnasium building, once part of the Royal Engineering College and now in need of significant refurbishment and expansion.
Concept
74 sought to bring the listed building back to life through careful and sensitive restoration and adaptation. To achieve due prominence for a gatehouse building, we also designed two highly contemporary, glazed, lightbox additions: a double-height, 44 sq m gatehouse to the building’s east elevation and a 35 sq m, covered terrace section on the first storey, offering views over the whole campus.
The Hox Haus placemaking vision was for it to encompass a number of important practical, social and unifying functions. The overriding interiors concept was for a warm and welcoming space with a country retreat or clubhouse-with-a-twist feel. It was an important part of the scheme’s design that natural ‘collision points’ for interaction were encouraged, whilst planting elements introduced a strong biophilic aspect to enhance students’ sense of wellbeing.
“74 excelled themselves on the design work for Hox Haus. The combination of their devoted attention to detail and design flair resulted in a scheme that sets the new standard for student accommodation in the UK. They understood easily what we were trying to achieve and were able to deliver a knock-out scheme, which encompasses necessary practical considerations, but also delivers the wow factor.”