ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
integrate this important facility with the hospital, and among other specialist research activities. This will provide a world-leading centre of excellence for biomarker discovery, validation, and clinical qualification, and will deliver a key objective of the Greater Manchester Cancer Plan. Co-location of the new research building and the adjacent existing hospital will facilitate access for clinicians and researchers to patient wards (particularly the clinical trials unit) and other facilities. This will ensure there is connectivity for clinicians, scientists, and researchers to move quickly from bed to bench-side (i.e. the laboratories). Links to the integrated procedures unit will allow easier access for the collection of tumour samples from patients having biopsies as part of their care. These tissue samples can be quickly preserved and transferred for research use within the PRP laboratories. Delays in collecting and using tissue samples can result in the failure of experiments.
Laboratory accommodation and research spaces The basement, plus Levels 3, 4, 5 and 6, house the laboratory accommodation and research spaces. To inform the building’s design and layout, the design team has engaged with the users of the laboratories to devise a standardised laboratory module, which will become the ‘building blocks’ for the new building. The standardised module has informed the size and proportion of the other more specialist laboratories in the building. While such specialist laboratories will
require different spaces and functions (due to different scientific criteria), the standardised approach means that the project partners can easily convert the laboratories into standard laboratory modules. Groups of laboratories are to be assembled in rectangular blocks that are regular, repeated, adaptable, and flexible, so they can respond to the various scientific functions that take place within them, and also to the future developments anticipated in scientific cancer research
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Integration of the research facilities will bring clinicians and researchers under one roof, enabling greater collaboration between experts in oncology, and accelerating the development of new treatments, including for cancers that are more difficult to treat
over the lifetime of the building space. To maximise the developable area of the building, the building footprint has been cantilevered both along the length and width of the building.
Dedicated workspace for scientists and researchers Alongside each laboratory module, there will be a dedicated workspace for the researchers and scientists to write up research results. It is critical for this workspace to be immediately adjacent to the laboratories to ensure that scientists can move seamlessly between their bench and desk, and to promote collaboration with their colleagues.
Oak Cancer Centre, South London The Royal Marsden is a centre of excellence with an international reputation for ground-breaking research, pioneering the very latest in cancer treatments and technologies, and specialising in cancer diagnosis and education. The Trust has campuses in Sutton, Chelsea, and a Medical Day Care Unit at Kingston Hospital. The Sutton site currently provides world-class cancer care, and acts as the site for two-thirds of the Trust’s clinical research, working in conjunction with the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR). Some of the buildings and infrastructure date from the 1960s, and their researchers are spread out across the site. This is hindering the Trust’s ability to confront some of the most pressing challenges in cancer research and treatment. The new six-storey Oak Cancer Centre
(OCC) will provide a centre for the rapid diagnostics of cancer, increased
operational capacity for outpatients and ambulatory day care, and a clinical assessment unit. Research facilities provided will bring researchers under one roof, enabling greater collaboration between their experts in oncology, and accelerating the development of new treatments, including for cancers that are more difficult to treat. The OCC has been designed to evoke a
confident sense of optimism. The glazed ‘shop window’ double height entrance / arrival / waiting space provides a very welcoming active frontage along the western façade, enabling views into the semi-public arrival, reception, and waiting space, while also benefitting these interior spaces with clear views out towards the landscape. The entrance glazing at first floor level merges with the glazed slot forming the external envelope to the research floor. The geometry of the building concept
is very simple, and is characterised by a west-facing crescent / concave curve orientated towards a new garden composed of some existing mature copper beech trees, and augmented with some mature new trees and soft landscape. The crescent at the front of the building presents a welcoming gesture to those approaching. At either end of the crescent there are level access terraces which the patients and staff can break out onto if they need a breath of fresh air, or just a change of scene.
Entrance level The entrance level co-locates all of the general outpatient clinics, the haematology / oncology outpatients, phlebotomy, and the dispensing pharmacy, on the same
January 2023 Health Estate Journal 29
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