The contractor is due to start on site this month to deliver the £11m Softbridge building, designed by world famous architect Dame Zaha Hadid.

It is BAM’s second Hadid designed building after completing the award-winning Riverside Transport Museum in Glasgow.

The building will contain three levels and a basement, housing a library and auditorium with translation facilities as well as specialist archive storage rooms for precious College resources.

Sited between two listed buildings, it will enhance and enlarge the facilities available to students and post-graduates within the university’s Middle East Centre.

Hadid’s use of glass curtain walling and spectacular steel cladding will make the building a landmark within the renowned university and historic city. FSC-approved timber will be used for sustainability.

BAM has a strong track record in Oxford and will work with suppliers that it used on the Ashmolean Museum project.

BAM’s construction manager Anthony Nagle said: “We are delighted to be working with such universally respected architects as Dame Zaha Hadid, and look forward to the challenge of making their stunning vision a reality.

“This project will provide first class learning facilities for the Middle East Centre at Oxford University while acting as a landmark befitting of the institution. We will ensure the scheme also benefits the local economy and environment.”

Work is due for completion in August 2014, ahead of the 2014/15 academic year.