Great Ormond Street Hospital Recognised with Civic Trust Award

Pell Frischmann is delighted to announce the Zayed Centre for Research into Rare Diseases in Children has won a Civic Trust Award.

Working alongside our partners Stanton Williams, Skanska and Great Ormond Street Hospital, Pell Frischmann provided Civil, Structural and Geotechnical engineering services for this eight-storey, state-of-the-art paediatric hospital and research centre, aiming to identify and cure currently incurable rare diseases in children.

The architecture both employs the client’s aspirations of a transparent structure to recognise the hard-working scientists, coupled with sustainable engineering methods to mitigate the environmental impact on the surrounding area and its residents.

Inspirational Transparency

Great Ormond Street Hospital’s aspirations were to enhance the expert-patient relationship and provide open transparency to the public. One of the key architectural features is the 140-bench, open-plan research laboratory that’s visible from the outside, allowing the public to view scientists and technicians work on cutting-edge medicinal practices. This inspirational level of visual transparency demonstrates the centre’s philosophy of mutual respect and appreciation, supporting its ‘Bench-to-bedside’ way-of-working, as well as allowing natural light to permeate.

Sustainably Operational

The scheme took great inspiration from the surrounding conservation area; the Zayed Centre exposes 75% of its concrete, contrasting to most-new-build schemes, which enables the highly recognisable façade. Functional too, the exposed concrete design provides thermal mass reducing energy needs. The building cools in the summer and insulates to retain heat in the cooler winter months – this contributed to the BREEAM Excellence of the scheme.

Over the past year, the Zayed Centre has been pivotal in COVID-19 testing and research, informing the local and national public health planning.

Andy Murray, said: “Pell Frischmann is delighted to see this project awarded such a prestigious prize. The Civic Trust Awards is a long-standing scheme that distinguishes outstanding architecture, planning and design in the built environment, and we are delighted that the Zayed Centre has been awarded this recognition. The scale of Zayed’s Centre’s impact on lives is unequivocal; the goal is to cure rare diseases forever and Pell Frischmann is humbled to be part of the vision”.

Congratulations to all our partners creating an area for scientists, doctors and nurses to work, and for the children to feel safe.