Pioneering charity Maggie’s needed a new centre within St Bartholomew’s Hospital to deliver free support to people with cancer and their families.

Good design is integral to the life of each centre, providing therapeutic environments in an intentionally domestic style. The ambitious architectural concept for Maggie’s Barts incorporated three serially nested vessels to create a luminous visual aesthetic.

Working with Steven Holl Architects, Arup produced the building’s bespoke engineering and façade design, helping to bring the ambitious vision to life. This vision – to create a single volume, column-free interior within a curved, soft-translucent glass façade – depended greatly on the team’s engineering innovation to execute it while complementing the building’s historical setting adjacent to London’s oldest hospital.  

Through extensive collaboration, Arup ensured that the engineering was closely incorporated into the architecture throughout in order to bring the complex design to completion. As the number of people living with cancer increases, so does the need for practical and emotional support. The new centre’s open-plan social areas and counselling rooms create a relaxed and serene atmosphere, aiding the special support Maggie’s provides. 

Delivering the architect’s vision called for a unique partnership of designers and constructors to meet the challenge. The end result is an outstanding testament to their combined skill 

Chris Watson

Property Director for Maggie's

The three vessels concept 

The building’s 'three vessel' concept provides a perforated concrete wrap to the building, cloaked within a bespoke, curved translucent façade. These two vessels enclose a third, bamboo-lined interior and floating circulation route, creating an open and welcoming space. The lantern-like building provides a soft, luminous visual aesthetic in complementary contrast to the adjacent Grade I Listed Bart’s Great Hall. The three-storey concrete frame branches and its complex geometry provides the supporting core element of the three ‘vessels’. The wrap’s stiffening effect allowed the large central space to be column-free. We achieved this by developing an in-situ concrete solution of varying vertical lines and curved corners, accommodating significant voids and spans of 15x10m. 

From a watercolour to a living, breathing building 

Holl used watercolours to convey his ideas; the challenge was turning these visions into a buildable façade that would complement its location. The pioneering façade which is based on neume notation – a mediaeval method of writing music down from the Greek for ‘vital force’: an opaque façade, pocketed with coloured fragments that glow at night and flood the interior with changing light throughout the day. The use of translucent Okalux in curved, insulated glass panels was a world-first challenge as the project’s inclined geometry pushed the tolerance limits of the curved units. We developed an approach combining commercially available and in-house scripts to resolve the structural, geometrical and thermal complexities of the façade. 

Maggies barts interior

Holl used watercolours to convey his ideas; the challenge was turning these visions into a buildable façade that would complement its location. 

Simplifying the design 

We optimised the design throughout the project stages for cost, ease of fabrication and durability. The curved corners of the concrete structure were rationalised to achieve a constant radius. Single-radius and flat-glass units were used where possible to create the required aesthetic with minimal impact on the architecture. A visual mock-up was built on site which confirmed the cost and identified any conflicts between unique components and varying production methods. The open, curved concrete staircase linking the different levels provides an engaging focal point. It was formed monolithically with the concrete frame, point-connected to the branched wrap from which it cantilevers. In keeping with the interior design, it is finished with thin planar cantilevering bamboo balustrades designed and tested by Arup. 

Awards

  • IStructE Yorkshire Awards – Large Project of the Year

  • AJ100 Executive Architect of the Year

  • Dezeen’s Hospitality Building of the Year Award

  • Society of Façade Engineering (SFE) Awards – Innovation Project of the Year

Partners & collaborators

Construction Manager: Sir Robert McAlpine / Architect: Steven Holl Architects / Cost Consultant: G&T / Cladding Contractor: Seele / Concrete Contractor: Realtime / Specialist Glass Suppliers: Okalux and Fineglass