THESE are the £200m buildings that will form Oxford’s newest academic powerhouse.

The Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, as the former Radcliffe Infirmary site between Woodstock Road and Walton Street will be known, will feature courtyards and gardens alongside an underground library.

It will be one of the biggest developments in the city for a century.

The plans were set to go on show for the first time today – just 10 days after Oxford University received planning permission for the first phase of the scheme, which involves the removal of former hospital buildings.

A planning application will be submitted to Oxford City Council by the end of the month, four weeks after Oxford Brookes University’s £150m scheme to modernise its Gypsy Lane campus in Headington was controversially rejected by councillors.

Oxford University said the buildings would bring together faculties scattered around the city, providing cutting-edge research and teaching facilities.

A new maths institute, designed by Rafael Viñoly, will consist of two building blocks, linked by a two-storey glazed structure housing the main entrance. It will be the main workplace for more than 500 academics and support staff and 1,000 undergraduates.

The university said its objective had been to create “a wow building” that fitted the historic setting.

The five-storey humanities building will house the university’s English, history and theology departments. Sloping ground between Walton Street and Woodstock Road means the underground library and teaching spaces will be entered at a lower ground-floor level.

Prof Anthony Monaco, chairman of the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter Board, said: “These two projects are at the heart of our academic mission on this site.

“They offer state-of-the-art research, teaching and study space, while offering new avenues through the site, exciting courtyards, gardens and squares, all with views of the Radcliffe Observatory.”

The university said that one of the key aims was to create high-quality spaces, open to the public. There will be a new route for pedestrians and cyclists between Woodstock Road and Walton Street.

Work could begin by the end of 2010 and finish by 2013. The cost of the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter project is estimated at £600m.

The designs will be on show at St Luke’s Chapel, in Woodstock Road, next to the site, between 2pm and 7.30pm today and tomorrow.