08/10/2026
St Edmund Hall is delighted to announce that we officially opened our new 127 bedroom student accommodation, Norham St Edmund, last Friday 2 October! 🎉
Set in North Oxford and designed by Wright & Wright Architects, the site comprises three new Passivhaus certified buildings: the Willis Building, Ashton House and Elliott House, and a low carbon retrofit of an 1874 Victorian villa, Dunbabin Lodge.
St Edmund Hall is the first college to build Passivhaus certified student accommodation in Oxford. Receiving this certification requires exceptional levels of performance across multiple criteria, including insulation, airtightness, manufacture, heating and cooling, energy, glazing, and ventilation.
Norham St Edmund’s three new buildings have an energy demand 70% lower than that of typical modern buildings and are delivered at a comparable cost to conventional new-build construction. The creation of five new gardens around the site has achieved an 88% biodiversity net gain, with early evidence of potential benefits for bats and other wildlife already emerging.
We are immensely proud that our development is an exemplar of climate-resilient student housing for the future.
Find out more: www.seh.ox.ac.uk/news/st-edmund-hall-opens-new-passivhaus-student-accommodation
Photo caption and credits:
1 – View of the front of Norham St Edmund - Fisher Studios
2 – Typical student room in a Passivhaus building - Fisher Studios
3 – Opening ceremony, 2 October – Fisher Studios
4 – Aerial view of Norham St Edmund – Jim Stephenson
5 – View from The Stafford Pond – Jim Stephenson
6 – Hirsch Cloister Gardens – Hufton+Crow Photography
7 – Students walking at Norham St Edmund – Fisher Studios
8 – The Smith Common Room in Cooksey Square – Fisher Studios
9 – Dunbabin Lodge - renovated 1874 Villa – Hufton+Crow Photography
10 – Student room in Dunbabin Lodge – Fisher Studios
11 – Aerial view of development – Jim Stephenson
12 – The Tai-Heng Cheng Common Room – Jim Stephenson
13 – Student kitchen – Jim Stephenson
14 – Student en-suite bathroom – Jim Stephenson
15 – Cooksey Square – Hufton+Crow Photography
16 – Elliott House – Hufton+Crow Photography
