DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION
There are four roof gardens – courtyard, courtyard roof, top of atrium, and roof.
site sits strategically between the existing main UCL hospital to the north, and the new UCH Macmillan Cancer Centre. The Cancer Centre has been designed with spare capacity for 10 years of activity growth. In 2010 the UK Treasury committed funding to provide a new National Centre for Proton Beam Therapy for NHS Patients in the UK. Scott Tallon Walker Architects (STW) was appointed to develop outline proposals for both University College London Hospital (UCLH) and The Christie Hospital in Manchester, as part of a national bid process by major NHS Trusts. Both schemes were successful, and each is able to treat up to 750 patients per year. Scott Tallon Walker Architects, in
association with Edward Williams Architects, were appointed by UCLH as architects for the London PBT project, and took the design through a successful town planning application with the London Borough of Camden, and then on to tender stage. Scott Tallon Walker Architects was then contracted as lead designer and architect for the construction stage by main contractor, Bouygues, UK.
An ‘L’-shaped building The building is essentially an ‘L’-shaped building in plan, running the length of Grafton Way and returning down Huntley Street, flanked at one end by Tottenham Court Road, and at the other by University Street and the UCH Macmillan Cancer Centre. It features a central atrium running through the axis of the building that separates the Main building from the lower internal Courtyard building. The Main building consists of seven
above-ground levels and four below- ground basement levels. Proton beam therapy (PBT) and plant consume the majority of the basement levels, the remaining areas being given over to operating theatres and imaging. Above ground are clinical spaces, including bedrooms and consultation rooms.
64 Health Estate Journal June 2022
Key features include generosity of space, light transparency, and ‘sensory encounters to offer respite from city life’.
The Courtyard building consists of three above-ground storeys housing predominantly support spaces, with two roof gardens on top.
PBT’s benefits Proton beam therapy is a type of radiotherapy that uses a beam of high- energy protons, which are small parts of atoms, rather than high-energy X-rays (called ‘photons’), to treat specific types
LEVEL 00
of cancer. Proton beam therapy enables a dose of high-energy protons to be precisely targeted at a tumour, reducing the damage to surrounding healthy tissues and vital organs – an advantage in certain groups of patients, or where the cancer is close to a critical part of the body such as the spinal cord. PBT is only suitable for certain types of cancer, such as highly complex brain, head, and neck cancers, and sarcomas, as it doesn’t lead to better outcomes for many cancer cases than using high-energy X-rays, which are still considered the most appropriate and effective treatment for most cancers. Like high-energy X-ray radiotherapy, proton beam therapy is painless, but patients may experience side effects similar to those experienced from other forms of radiotherapy.
LEVEL -1 Theatres
LEVEL -2 Plant
LEVEL -3 PBT & Imaging
LEVEL -4 PBT
LEGEND CORES
CLINICAL STAFF CLINICAL PATIENT CLINICAL CIRCULATION
PLANT
PLANT CIRCULATION IMAGING
THEATRE STAFF THEATRE PATIENT THEATRE CIRCULATION
PBT STAFF PBT PATIENT PBT CIRCULATION
An axonometric drawing of the PBT access hatches.
How the site was chosen The site was one of several identified in the UCLH masterplan, and sits within the central London Bloomsbury Conservation Area on the existing UCLH campus, close to the main UCL hospital and several listed buildings, most notably the Grade II-listed UCL Cruciform Building and UCL Medical School. The site was owned by UCLH, and had been empty for many years. This location proved particularly suited to this development, as it is next door to both the main UCLH hospital and the Macmillan Cancer Centre for co-located clinical services, and there was also the ability to connect physically to the network of underground tunnels that runs across the UCLH Campus. This building is connected at Level -1 (Theatre Floor) directly to the tunnel network, providing direct connection back to the main hospital if required, without the need for transport outside across public highways. The site also sits within the designated Mayor of London’s View Corridor, which runs from Parliament Hill to Westminster Palace, and which limits the height of development.
Photos courtesy of Paul Raftery
Courtesy of Edward Williams Architects / Scott Tallon Walker
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76
