Fleming Centre St. Mary’s Hospital Paddington building, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Fleming Centre St. Mary’s Hospital, Paddington
Updated 8 January 2025 + 8 July 2024
Location: Paddington, Borough of Westminster, Northwest London, England, UK
Images: Stanton Williams
Fleming Centre St. Mary’s Hospital, London
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has today announced that Stanton Williams has been selected to design the new Fleming Centre, a research and public engagement facility to be built on the St Mary’s Hospital campus in Paddington, London.
The Fleming Centre is part of the wider Fleming Initiative, established jointly by Imperial College Healthcare and Imperial College London to find solutions to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) at a global scale. The Centre will provide a space to bring together researchers, policymakers, clinicians, behavioral experts, commercial partners and the public to combine their shared networks, expertise and skills in the fight against AMR. It will also be part of a global network of centres in strategic locations around the world, aiming to catalyse worldwide action.
The selection follows a competitive RIBA design competition and a three-day design exhibition in November, showcasing five concept designs from five shortlisted architects. Feedback from over 300 visitors and 100 written responses helped guide the final selection, ensuring that the winning concept reflected excellence in both design and functionality and is a real asset to the local community.
The next phase of the project will involve detailed design development, public consultations, and the submission of a planning application in collaboration with Westminster City Council.
The Centre is intended to be integrated into a full redevelopment of St Mary’s Hospital which is included in the Government’s New Hospital Programme. The Centre is due to open in 2028, marking 100 years since the discovery of penicillin at St Mary’s by Sir Alexander Fleming.
The other shortlisted teams invited to take part in the design phase of the competition were:
• AHMM
• Allies and Morrison
• Grimshaw
• Wilkinson Eyre with White Arkitekter
Stanton Williams’ concept design for the Fleming Centre embraces the heritage of its proposed location on the site of The Bays. These former industrial warehouses, dating back to around 1850, were originally used for transport and distribution before being incorporated into the hospital in 1983. Their approach retains and adapts The Bays as a vital link to Paddington’s industrial past while inserting new elements, including the Fleming Discovery Centre, to showcase cutting-edge science and research. The design prioritises sustainability, proposing features such as renewable energy systems, including a water-source heat pump and photovoltaic panels, alongside biodiverse landscaping and a low-carbon structure. Public engagement is central, with the ground floor designed as an open and welcoming extension of the public realm, offering views into laboratories and curated exhibition spaces to bring science to life.
Professor the Lord Darzi, Executive Chair of the Fleming Initiative said: “Stanton Williams has a bold vision for the Fleming Centre and have brought our ambitions to life with a concept that reflects the Centre’s unique purpose and global significance. By providing a flexible space to unite researchers, policymakers, clinicians, behavioral experts, commercial partners and the public in the fight against antimicrobial resistance, we can ensure that the Fleming Centre becomes a global beacon for change in healthcare.”
Professor Tim Orchard, chief executive of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “This is an exciting milestone for the Fleming Centre and the planned, wider redevelopment of the St Mary’s Hospital site. The Stanton Williams design concept gave the selection panel great confidence that the building they design will honour both Sir Alexander Fleming’s legacy and our aspiration for continued innovation with local and global impact.”
Imperial President Professor Hugh Brady said: “The Fleming Centre will bring together Imperial’s world-leading researchers with diverse UK and international partners, including from academia, the pharmaceutical industry, policy community and civil society to tackle the challenge of AMR head-on. The new building will also be a key part of the Paddington Life Sciences development and Imperial WestTech Corridor vision. We are excited to be one step closer to starting the transformative work it will enable us to do.”
Architets: Stanton Williams – https://stantonwilliams.com/en
Renders: Stanton Williams
RIBA launches competition to design Fleming Centre at St. Mary’s Hospital, Paddington
photo © Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Fleming Centre St. Mary’s Hospital, Paddington Building
Monday 8th of July 2024 – The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has today announced the launch of a design competition following the ‘Competitive Procedure with Negotiation’ on behalf of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
The competition is seeking an architect to design the Fleming Centre, a Life Sciences facility that will be located on the St. Mary’s Hospital site in Paddington, London.
The Centre will be at the heart of the global Fleming Initiative, an innovative and collaborative new approach led by the Trust and Imperial College London, with HRH Prince of Wales as its patron, to tackle anti-microbial resistance (AMR) around the world.
At the Fleming Centre, scientists will work alongside clinicians, patients, members of the public and policy makers to scope, test and scale solutions. Consequently, the building should be purposefully designed to encourage the public to engage with world-leading science, policy and behavioural change research, ensuring new solutions work for local contexts.
The Centre is due to open at St Mary’s hospital in 2028, helping 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 in the coming years, as plans for the wider redevelopment of the whole hospital site continue to progress.
Professor Tim Orchard, Chief Executive, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust said:
“The launch of the RIBA design competition marks an exciting milestone for the Fleming Centre and St Mary’s hospital more widely. This state-of-the-art facility will not only honour the legacy of Alexander Fleming and St Mary’s as the birthplace of penicillin but also spearhead the fight against antimicrobial resistance through groundbreaking research and public engagement.
We are looking forward to collaborating with visionary architects to create a centre that will inspire and facilitate global change in healthcare. It will also be the first completed building in the redeveloped St Mary’s hospital, demonstrating our vision to protect St Mary’s position as a world-class trauma hospital and a centre for life-saving research.”
Applications are invited in accordance with the requirements set out in the briefing document and selection questionnaire.
Further information can be found on the architecture competition webpage including a link to register.
The deadline for receipt of applications is 7 August 2024 at 12:00 BST. It is anticipated that up to five teams will be shortlisted and invited to participate in the design phase of the competition.
RIBA Competitions
Please ensure the RIBA is credited when mentioning the above competition. RIBA Competitions delivers choice, inspiration and value to clients through expertly run competitive selection processes. The dedicated RIBA Competitions team can help you explore the full potential of your project, for further information visit www.architecture.com/competitions or email [email protected].
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
• Imperial College Healthcare is one of the largest NHS Trusts in England, with over 15,000 staff providing acute and specialist healthcare to over one million people a year.
• The Trust runs five hospitals in central and west London – Charing Cross, Hammersmith, Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea, St Mary’s and the Western Eye.
• The Trust also hosts the National Institute for Health and Care Research Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, in partnership with Imperial College London.
• Find out more: www.imperial.nhs.uk
Fleming Centre St. Mary’s Hospital, Paddington London image / information from the RIBA – The Royal Institute of British Architects
Location: St. Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, north west London, United Kingdom.
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