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Shortlist of architects announced for the next phase of The Fleming Centre design competition 1 Oct 2024

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced a shortlist of 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 Fleming Centre will be part of a global network of centres 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 itself 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 site.

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 shortlisted teams will now enter the next phase of the process, with a final decision expected to be announced in January 2025.

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 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. The Fleming Centre will be the first new building to open at St Mary’s as part of plans for the redevelopment of the whole hospital site over the next decade.

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 that the Fleming Centre brings real impact, locally and globally, as a visionary space for collaboration, groundbreaking science and engagement to drive change.” 

Lord Ara Darzi, Executive Chair of the Fleming Initiative, said: "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. The new Fleming Centre will be an integral part of the new St Mary’s Hospital site once completed. 

St Mary’s Hospital has been developed piecemeal over the past 170 years. The space and configuration limitations of the current buildings make it harder to respond to growing and changing healthcare demands and opportunities. The aging estate is increasingly impacting on patient care and experience, as well as the working lives of staff, despite millions being spent each year on essential maintenance. 

The Trust submitted a first-stage business case to the government’s New Hospital Programme in 2021 for a full redevelopment of St Mary’s and is currently awaiting a decision on funding to progress detailed design and town planning work. The Trust is proposing to build a new 800-bed hospital at the east of the estate. You can read more on our website here.