Work is due to start on Spratley Studios’ £1.2 million boathouse for Oxford Brookes University this May.

The boathouse, on the Thames in Wallingford, is due to be completed by December 2010 to maximise its use for training for the 2012 Olympics.

The design is described as a contemporary interpretation of local agricultural buildings. Clad in matt-black stained English larch, it does not have viewing balcony but has internal viewing platforms suspended between the two gable ends.

Director Jeremy Spratley described building as "simple, clean and efficient, like its contents".