13th October 2020

NHS London’s first major proton beam therapy unit is nearing completion

This article was published before we changed our practice name, from Edward Williams Architects to Cagni Williams

When complete, the 34,500 Sq.M building, designed by Edward Williams Architects in association with Scott Tallon Walker, will allow UCLH’s advanced cancer services to be delivered from the Trust’s main campus in central London.

The design uses shading and screening elements to create an elegant and sophisticated composition for the main perimeter building, and when the hoardings are down a glazed and colonnaded ground floor will be revealed that encourages physical and visual connections to the street. The building is arranged around a full height atrium that brings daylight into the heart of the unit. It will provide up to 120 patient beds in addition to the proton beam unit and 4 treatment bays.

We have been observing the construction of the building with interest and despite some considerable contractor-led design changes we are pleased to report that the integrity of the design as a whole is still coming through.

We led the design of the building up to tender and then Scott Tallon Walker was further retained by contractor Bouygues as executive architect for the design and build contract.

The project has achieved a BREEAM commendation last year.