Shortlist of architects announced for flagship Fleming Centre

  • 23rd October 2024

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced a shortlist of five architects who will progress to the next phase of design for The Fleming Centre at St Mary’s Hospital, following a RIBA design competition launched in collaboration with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in July.

The Fleming Centre will be at the heart of the global Fleming Initiative, an innovative and collaborative approach led by the Trust and Imperial College London, with HRH Prince of Wales as its Patron, to tackle anti-microbial resistance (AMR).

The centre will be part of a global network of facilities in strategic locations around the world, aiming to catalyse worldwide action.
Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham, executive chair of the Fleming Initiative, last week announced it had raised an initial £100m, supported by three new partners, LifeArc, Cepheid, and Optum, alongside founding partner, GSK, and other philanthropists.
The centre is due to open at St Mary’s Hospital in 2028, helping to mark the centenary of the discovery of penicillin at the hospital by Sir Alexander Fleming.

It will be the first new building to open on the St Mary’s site as part of a planned full redevelopment of the estate.
The evaluation panel has selected the following practices to proceed to the next phase of the competition:

  • AHMM
  • Allies and Morrison
  • Grimshaw
  • Stanton Williams
  • Wilkinson Eyre and White Arkitekter

The teams will now enter the next phase of the process, with a final decision expected to be announced in January.
The Fleming Centre will be a key part of the trust’s Paddington Life Sciences development which is creating a thriving ecosystem for life sciences research and innovation, with St Mary’s as its hub.

In turn, Paddington Life Sciences is an integral part of the Imperial WestTech Corridor, a globally-significant concentration of technology and innovation stretching across west London and acting as a catalyst for investment, employment, and inclusive growth.
St Mary’s Hospital – along with the trust’s two other main sites, Charing Cross and Hammersmith hospitals – are part of the Government’s New Hospital Programme.

Professor Tim Orchard, chief executive of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “We are excited by the prospect of plans for the Fleming Centre that incorporate creative ways to honour the legacy of Sir Alexander Fleming.

“We will be engaging with staff, patients, and local communities to ensure the Fleming Centre brings real impact, locally and globally, as a visionary space for collaboration, groundbreaking science, and engagement to drive change.”
Lord Darzi added: “Science alone will not solve the global threat of antimicrobial resistance, we have to change human behaviour.

“The Fleming Centre is an embodiment of our commitment to making public engagement and behavioural science the cornerstones of the innovative solutions we need.

“I look forward to reviewing plans for the Fleming Centre that will make this vision a reality.”
The trust is proposing to build the Fleming Centre on the site currently occupied by The Bays buildings on the west of the hospital site.

These former industrial warehouses were built around 1850 for transport and distribution networks and were incorporated into the hospital in 1983, primarily for office use.

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