Heritage and complex projects expertise delivers Maggie’s Barts

Our Special Projects delivered this technically complex healthcare project within live hospital campus and protected it’s Grade I listed neighbours

Standing in the grounds of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, close to Smithfield Market, as with all Maggie’s centres, this latest building is designed by a celebrated architect, Steven Holl.

Maggie's centres are run by expert staff who provide a full programme of support to help people live well with cancer. The centre at St Barts is open to all cancer patients and friends and family of patients who are receiving treatment at the hospital or elsewhere in the region.

Built on an extremely tight site surrounded by historic buildings, Holl’s ‘lantern-like’ centre is a geometrically complex structure, featuring curving junctions between glass, concrete and bamboo elements.

Undertaken as a construction management contract, Maggie’s Barts was constructed over the space of 18 months.

Project summary

    • Client: Maggie Keswick Jencks Cancer Caring Centres Trust
    • Sector: Healthcare
    • Location: London
    • Services: Special Projects, Construction Management
    • Completion date: 2018

Its opaque glass façade with coloured fragments is composed of panels rising in a sloping wrapped band. The panels are formed of coloured film sandwiched between two layers of insulation. This in turn is sandwiched between two layers of glass – the complex curving of which was developed with Arup and Seele.

Within the building, a gently rising bamboo stair integral to the concrete frame curves around a central space, echoing the panels outside. The constraints of the site posed an interesting problem, working within the grounds of a live hospital and adjoining to a Grade I listed building.

This project has been extremely challenging due to the geometry of the building, particularly the glazed façade and concrete frame elements, but also very rewarding.

Mark Love Project Manager

Maggie’s St Bart’s won International Award for Façade Engineering Excellence “Outstanding Façade Innovation 2018” category at the Society of Façade Engineering awards, and a commendation, at the Civic Trust Awards in 2019.

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