Guy’s & St Thomas’s Hospital : East Wing Cladding Competition

Expressions of interest are invited from contractor-led design teams for the re-cladding of the East Wing building on the St Thomas’ Hospital site in central London. The approximate budget is £21m. This is made up of construction cost, design fees, planning contingency and inflationary uplift. The client, Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust), has identified the East Wing building as one of six strategic projects in need of upgrade and improvement.

The East Wing building, which is over 40 years old, is a significant urban presence in the London cityscape. Situated on the south side of the river where the Thames meanders north, the East Wing sits opposite the Houses of Parliament, with Lambeth Palace to the south. To the east, the façade is clearly visible to trains arriving at Waterloo station.

The competition seeks a re-cladding design of exemplary quality providing significant improvements in energy efficiency with minimised CO2 emissions and a long-term solution to address water ingress, improve insulation and energy efficiency. Presently the building does not perform well therefore it is the Trust’s aspiration to ultimately achieve a minimum BREEAM ‘excellent’ rating.

The aim of the competition is for the client to select a preferred bidder (a consortium of main contractor and architect-led design team) on design, construction capability and best value.

In using the RIBA to promote and manage the competition the Trust aims to attract interest from contractor/architect teams with exceptional design skills and a track record of construction excellence. Accordingly a design-focussed judging panel has been selected which includes architects David Henderson (Bennetts Associates) and Jim Eyre (Wilkinson Eyre Architects), and an honorarium of £15,000 (plus VAT) will be paid to each consortia invited to the design stage of the competition. This will be the third RIBA competition organised for the Trust, who hope to build on success achieved through the Evelina Children’s Hospital. This building set a new benchmark in healthcare design and went on to be shortlisted for the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize. Last month a competition was launched for a new £90m Cancer Treatment Centre to be built on the Guy’s site.

Preliminary Briefing Paper (PDF)