Sir – Many have been the reservations about the collage of designs for Oxford University’s Radcliffe Camera ‘campus’, not least that they simply aren’t adventurously modern enough, but Miss L. King (Letters, November 19) does Rick Mather a disservice in her criticism of his Ashmolean designs, now achieved, and in her dismissal of his revised plans for the Keble Acland site.

As anyone who has had the opportunuity to visit the (new) Ashmolean since it reopened on November 14 will know, Mather’s vision has enhanced the old with transformations of space and line which perfectly embody the (new) museum’s ‘Crossing Cultures, Crossing Time’ motif.

As for the revised Keble plans, these will incorporate Sir Thomas Jackon’s 1897 grade II-listed building and offer a spacious new ‘campus’ for Kebleites and others; and will much improve currently undistinguished sections of the Banbury and Woodstock Roads.

As for Miss King’s entreaty against a proposed arts centre amidst the shops of a new Westgate, that “culture and shopping be kept a respectable distance from one another”, this can be countered by proclaiming how very welcome it would be to find an arts centre as part of a shopping centre: “culture and shopping” should most definitely mix!

I do hope Miss King hasn’t fallen into the Prince Charles trap, whereby the architecturally new is disdained in favour of repeating some sort of idealised past, which, in practice, can only lead to stasis and death.

Oxford and its colleges, finance allowing, should be bold and innovative in their building programmes, in a way of which the ghosts of Wren and Hawksmoor would surely approve.

Furthermore, Rick Mather’s other existing buildings in Oxford (at Keble and Corpus Christi; in progress at Queen’s) are models of sound eco-design and sustainability. More please, not less.

Bruce Ross-Smith, Headington