The new glass volumes form part of £120m facelift intended to bring the Southbank Centre, which was originally built for the Festival of Britain in 1951, up to the standard of the refurbished Royal Festival Hall, completed in 2007.

As the focal point of the proposals by Feilden Clegg Bradley – a firm that was part of the team behind the 2008 Stirling Prize-winning Accordia housing development in Cambridge – the atrium is designed to be used as a rehearsal and performance space for an orchestra of 150 and choir of up to 250.

The architects also intend to refurbish existing buildings and create additional arts spaces, including a building alongside Waterloo Bridge for educational activities.

From 7 March, the proposals will be shared in a public exhibition in the Royal Festival Hall and on the Southbank Centre’s website. A planning application will be submitted to Lambeth Council in late spring.

Last year architects Softroom built a temporary Mexican restaurant outside the Southbank Centre, while David Kohn Architects and artist Fiona Banner installed a boat on the roof of the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

See all architecture by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios »

Images are by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios.

Here's the press release from the Southbank Centre:

Southbank Centre has today (6 March) unveiled its proposals to transform the Festival Wing – the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery complex – to create, together with the successful Royal Festival Hall refurbishment, a world-class cultural centre for the 21st century, providing more art for more people in better spaces.

The proposals, by architects Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, include the refurbishment and renewal of the existing 1960s buildings and the creation of major new arts spaces including a new glass pavilion, a new central foyer and a new liner building. The proposals will enable Southbank Centre to realise its vision to deliver a larger and more ambitious arts, educational and cultural programme across the site for all its visitors to enjoy.

The project will bring the performance spaces and galleries up to the standard of the transformed Royal Festival Hall, completed in 2007, and address current urgent problems including poor access, worn out services and the need to upgrade stages, galleries and back stage areas. In addition, Southbank Centre will build on its heritage from the Festival of Britain in 1951 and its successful festival programme to make the most of these buildings and transform this part of the site to create new cultural experiences for future generations.

The project includes the following:

Queen Elizabeth Hall – refurbishing the auditorium; expanding the width of the stage to create wing space with less impact on sightlines; upgrading artistic and technical facilities; refurbishing back of house; improving disability access; and providing access from the new Central Foyer.

Purcell Room – refurbishing the auditorium and back of house facilities including improved stage access; upgrading technical facilities; improving disability access and creating a new entrance with access from the new Central Foyer.

Hayward Gallery – refurbishing the galleries and improving access through the galleries, to enable a broader exhibition programme, including free shows, which will be open for more weeks during the year. The iconic pyramid roof will be replicated to improve lighting and be made watertight. Back of house improvements include a secure loading bay. Access from the new Central Foyer.

New Central Foyer – a glazed atrium will cover the space between the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room, and the Hayward Gallery, to create an artistic and social hub for this part of the site with new entrances to all three venues and BFI Southbank, and improve links to the National Theatre.

Glass Pavilion – a new world-class venue ‘floating’ on top of the Central Foyer. This flexible, flat floor space, with first-class acoustics, is designed to hold a full orchestra of 150 and choir of up to 250 plus small audience. The scale will attract the greatest orchestras and performers across the art forms to rehearse and perform in this new space. It will also be able to host national and international corporate events.

A new ‘liner’ building (along Waterloo Bridge) – bringing together educational, artistic and commercial uses, this large, flexible space will host a broad, year-round education programme for all age groups and abilities. The Saison Poetry Library will move from Level 5 in the Royal Festival Hall to join a literature and spoken word space in a new national literature centre, and two new restaurants will overlook the river.

New undercroft venues – under-used space from the undercrofts will be reclaimed for artistic and cultural uses; including a new venue for gigs, dance, cabaret, music and spoken word events and a space for young people. A

new Heritage and Archive Space – which will enable visitors and the local community to explore the site’s rich history in a welcoming and hands-on environment.

A new place for Children and Families – which will provide year-round activities such as storytelling and making things as well as exhibitions and a family restaurant. It will also be the new home for the childrens’ collection of the Poetry Library.

Green spaces and new places – creating external public spaces including a new square for public performance and two more roof gardens, with incredible views over London.

New connections – sweeping steps drawing people from the Royal Festival Hall and the new public square up to the Festival Wing, leading through the Central Foyer to Waterloo Bridge. Access to the site will be easier for pedestrians and wheelchair users via two new entrances from Waterloo Bridge. Servicing will be moved to create more space for public use and a more attractive route to the river.

A new riverside area for urban arts – which is visible to the public from Queen’s Walk, will be created with urban artists including skateboarders, BMX riders and graffiti artists.

Cafés and restaurants – will enhance the cultural experience; add to the range of choice along the South Bank; and provide much-needed capacity to meet increasing demand across the site as the South Bank becomes an ever more popular destination for Londoners and visitors to the capital.

From Thursday 7 March, the proposals will be shared in a public exhibition in the Royal Festival Hall and the exhibition will also be available online at Southbank Centre’s website. The physical and online exhibition forms a key part of the public consultation of this project ahead of a planning application being submitted to Lambeth Council in late Spring. The exhibition will be open daily from 10am to 11pm and it will be updated as the plans develop through consultation.

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Positioned on the riverbank between the city centre and one of the campuses for Worcester University, the four-storey building contains an academic library for students, a public library, a county archive and a local history centre.

An extruded roof comprising seven rectangular cones divides the building into a conjoined cluster of blocks, which reflect the arrangement of rooms and spaces within.

These chimney-like forms draw light and ventilation into each of the reading rooms, as well as into a central atrium that connects each of the floors.

Balconies and staircases are picked out in ash, while a set of red, yellow and blue-painted volumes are slotted between rooms on one floor to provide a row of informal reading spots.

The building will open in July.

In the last year Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios have also completed a hospital unit for sick or premature babies, which you can see here.

Photography is by Hufton & Crow.

Here's some more text from the architects:

UK’s first purpose-built joint-use library to open in July

The Hive which will open in July is the UK’s first purpose-built joint-use library serving the University of Worcester and the county that incorporates the county archive, a local history centre, accommodation for the County Archaeologist’s team and a ‘one stop shop’ for the local authority: It’s a pioneering response to the challenge of providing a wide range of public services in an age of austerity whilst promoting social and environmental sustainability.

The distinctive form is a response to the project partners’ aspirations to create a beacon for learning in the city centre, a counterpoint to the Cathedral on the edge of the floodplain to the River Severn.

The Hive forms part of a new city block which incorporates an accessible route connecting the city centre, via the top of the medieval city wall, to the new Castle Street University campus – it is designed to entice passers by to come in and explore.

Sustainability was a high priority throughout: The Hive maximises daylight and natural ventilation via the seven iconic roof cones that echo the undulating ridgeline of the Malverns and the historic kilns of the Royal Worcester pottery.

Water from the river Severn provides peak cooling and locally sources biomass provides heating.

The building is designed to adapt to climate change predicted by UK-CIP to 2050. It has an A rated Energy Performance Certificate and confirmation is awaited on whether it has met or exceeded the requirement to achieve BREEAM Excellent.

The roof structure was designed using award winning software developed for the project which allowed the form to be constructed from solid laminated timber: This generated a saving of more than 2000 tonnes of CO2 compared to the initial design in steel and concrete.

The exterior is clad in a scaley carapace of copper alloy. Inside the palette of concrete and ash is animated by colours drawn from the palette used by Royal Worcester.

The development includes extensive new public realm with both hard landscape (using locally sourced Forrest of Dean Pennant) and planting which draws on indigenous species to create a new and rich habitat for wildlife.

The Hive, which was procured via a PFI process, is a testament to teamwork; from the inspiration of the Project Partners who identified the opportunity to create a generous new public facility to the creativity of the design team and the tenacity of the contractors it demonstrates that by sharing a vision and pulling in the same direction the UK construction industry can deliver extraordinary buildings.

Vital Statistics:
1.34 ha site,
12,371m2 gross external area
£29.7m total construction ex vat, fees, external works and FF+E
£2400/m2
15.8 CO2/m2/yr
4.3m3/m2 at 50 Pa air tightness
40% GGBFS in cement

Team:
Client: University of Worcester and Worcestershire County Council
Architect: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
Structural Engineer: Hyder Consulting (UK) Ltd/ Atelier One
M&E Engineer: Max Fordham LLP
Planning Supervisor: Arcadis AYH
Landscape Consultant: Grant Associates
Contractor: Galliford Try Construction
Cladding Consultant: Montresor Partnership
Fire Consultant: Exova Warringtonfire
Access Consultant: All Clear Designs

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Square box windows provide seating areas at a hospital unit in Bath, UK, for sick and premature babies.

Designed by local architects Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, the Dyson Centre for Neonatal Care comprises the refurbishment of existing facilities and a new single-storey extension.

Treatment rooms are arranged around a clockwise route that begins with intensive care units and ends with recovering patient rooms.

This circulating corridor is naturally lit through a series of skylights.

Two further corridors connect the extension to the existing building and surround a private courtyard.

The unit is constructed of cross-laminated timber, which is exposed on the interior.

Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios were one the designers of the Accordia housing development, which won the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2008 - see our earlier story.

See also: another healthcare building in Bath by Foster + Partners.

Photography is by Craig Aukland / Fotohaus.

The following information is from Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios:

New Neonatal Unit by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios opens in Bath

The Dyson Centre for Neonatal Care opened its doors on the 23rd July to its first babies. The Royal United Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), in Bath, has been transferred from its existing small, cramped facilities into its pioneering new home.

The project, funded as a 50/50 partnership by NHS budgets and fundraising by The Forever Friends Appeal, has resulted in a dramatically different and improved environment in which the RUH can care for the 500 premature and sick babies that it looks after each year. A pioneering holistic and therapeutic approach towards the new building has created a new low carbon unit allowing the staff to practice new methods of care for premature and sick babies. The building consists of a single storey new‐build extension, and the refurbishment of the space occupied by the existing NICU facility. The new‐build element accommodates the clinical, support and reception functions as a discreet but contemporary intervention. The refurbished element comprises staff and parents’ facilities. The two elements are linked by a new ‘umbilicus’ which also provides an access point for emergency vehicles. The new building encloses an external courtyard space which provides both vista and breakout from reception and parents areas. The grouping of the care rooms forms a route around the staff base which is the heart of the unit.

The clockwise circuit of cot rooms forms a diagram of intensity of care, beginning with intensive care, then on to high dependency, then special care, on to the parents’ rooms, then finally home. From parents’ feedback progress along this ‘route’ is very important psychologically – it is important that the ever‐decreasing intensity of care is legible to parents. The consulting examination and treatment spaces are carefully daylit. Parents and staff can now perceive changing external conditions through day and night, increasing well‐being. The heart of the clinical area is generously roof lit providing daylight to all the central spaces within. Sunlight is allowed to enter the building in certain controlled areas to add sparkle and delight without disturbing the working of the unit. Within the care areas light is carefully controlled to ensure that babies gain an awareness of day and night as they develop.

Sustainability in construction and use has been central to the design of the new unit. The team were adamant that the new NICU should not be a one‐off showcase for sustainability, but should serve as a template and catalyst for sustainable healthcare design by challenging existing standards, defining new targets and developing strategies replicable elsewhere in the health sector. The unit is constructed entirely in cross laminated timber. This construction has benefits in terms of embodied energy, and is quick and clean to construct within a healthcare environment. The timber is exposed internally, creating a more calm and domestic environment within an acute clinical setting.

Click above for larger image

The project has achieved Breeam “Excellent”, and incorporates a sedum roof for rainwater attenuation, and to increase biodiversity on the site. These measures will combine to make the new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Royal United Hospital a beacon for sustainability across the health sector. The building is a case study for the next generation of healthcare buildings, a benchmark for best practice which incorporates replicable strategies which are demonstrated to pay back in a defined period, in a beautiful and therapeutic environment which is of tangible benefit to parents, staff and patients.

Click above for larger image

Architects view by Matt Vaudin

“We hope that the building will have a real influence and improve the outcomes for vulnerable babies, their parents and the amazing staff who look after them. We are especially pleased with the calmness created by the timber interior, and the quality of daylight and sunlight, which will help lower stress levels and lift the spirits for the parents and the staff.”

Parent comment

The first baby to have experienced both the cramped and noisy conditions of the old NICU and the benefits of the new facilities, Joshua Heather, was transferred to the Dyson Centre for Neonatal Care at the weekend. His mother, Cheralyn, said she is thrilled to be part of this memorable day and is amazed at the light airy conditions of the new building. “It is a real transformation and it will give me the opportunity to spend more time with Joshua in such comfortable and spacious surroundings”.

Client comment

Making this become a reality “has been a real experience” stated Steve Boxall, Project Manager for the RUH. “This sustainable building has given us many challenges and we have worked together to find the answers. It has been a fantastic project from which we have learnt a great deal. A tremendous amount of interest has been shown by other healthcare professionals and we will enjoy sharing our experiences with them”.

Click above for larger image

Consultant comment

Dr Bernie Marden, NICU Consultant, who has been involved from the beginning of this project, added “It is a dream come true. The four years planning and building it has taken has been worth every minute. Babies, however small, respond to the right environment and this could not be better. The NICU staff and I are truly delighted and can’t wait to settle into our wonderful new Centre”.

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by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios appeared first on Dezeen.

Accordia, a housing development by architects Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Alison Brooks Architects and Macreanor Lavington, has won the RIBA Stirling Prize 2008 for the best building by a British architect.

Accordia, a development at Cambridge, England, beat five other shorlisted schemes by architects Grimshaw, Denton Corker Marshall, Zaha Hadid Architects, Allies & Morrison and Allford Hall Monaghan Morris to the £20,000 prize.

See all the shortlisted projects in our earlier story. All above images are copyright Tim Crocker.

Above image is copyright Peter Cook.

Here's some info about the Stirling Prize winner and the winners of other RIBA awards:

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Accordia wins prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize 2008

Accordia in Cambridge designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Alison Brooks Architects and Macreanor Lavington has won the 13th RIBA Stirling Prize in association with The Architects' Journal. The presentation of the UK's premier architectural award took place at a glittering award ceremony this evening (Saturday 11 October) at the Arena and Convention Centre, Liverpool, and was televised live on Channel 4 at 9pm.

The judges commented:

“This is high density housing at its very best, demonstrating that volume house-builders can deliver high quality architecture – and that as a result they can improve their own bottom line.  The whole scheme is about relationships: between architect and developer/contractor/client; between three very different firms of architects – Feilden Clegg Bradley, Maccreanor Lavington and Alison Brooks Architects; and between private and public external spaces, providing a new model for outside-inside life with interior rooftop spaces, internal courtyards and large semi-public community gardens.”

On a brownfield site in Cambridge – formerly owned by the military - beautifully thought-through houses at a density of 47 homes to the hectare (65 if you discount the generous amenity spaces).  The site is organized straddling a broad avenue with just the one entrance for residents allowed to the site by the planners.  In this they bowed to the wishes of local residents for whom objection appears to be a full time occupation.

In other matters, the planners led by the remarkable Peter Studdert have been imaginative and firm with objectors. How often do planners use their powers to withhold permission unless the developers use good architects to produce fine architecture? What other authority would have allowed terraces at first and second floor level, instead of banning them on grounds of over-looking?  Where else would house-builders have been dissuaded from bowing to the supposed need of homeowners for a minimum 15 metre strip of garden behind the house?

Here several busy residents spoke to judges about their sense of liberation from the demands of gardening. Instead there is common land where children safely play as if in some idyllic throwback to the 1950s. Houses and flats have good-sized, well-proportioned rooms with views out ranging from urban to rural pasture.

There is plenty of variety in the house-plans too, from the understated simplicity of the FCBS layouts, to the highly complex plans of Maccreanor Lavington with their two staircases and their ambiguous inside-outside spaces; and the scissor plan stairs in some of the Alison Brooks houses.  The detailing too varies with the architect, producing a different aesthetic in each. These are traditional houses but with a twist.  Much of the construction was fabricated off site to increase speed of construction, reduce waste, and to improve site safety and environmental performance.

The judges were asked to consider Phase 1 of the scheme – filling the northern and western parts of the site – since then Countryside have sold on to Redeham Homes to complete the scheme and to date at least the new developers and their architects have remained faithful both to the Feilden Clegg Bradley masterplan and to their detailed design guidelines.  One row of mews houses by the new architects was indistinguishable, from the FCBS original on the other side of the exquisitely planted landscaping.

This is a Span-type housing for the 21st century, a post-Thatcherite development that is not afraid of communal aspirations and aesthetics.  There is plenty of individuality in the flexible house plans (mews garages have often been turned into studios or offices, even granny annexes); there is privacy on (most of) the terraces and balconies; but there are village greens and strips of common land, cars are tamed not banned – this is architecture that treats adults as grown-ups and children as people with different needs: for stimuli for play which does not involved sitting into front of a screen or a games console, and which involves interaction with other young people, not with Bill Gates and his protégés.

The development proves that good modern housing sells, that a committed local authority can have a very positive influence on the design, that a masterplan with a range of architects can be successful and that the very best architecture does not need to rely on gimmicks.  It has already won numerous awards: Housing Design Awards – overall winner (2006); Building for Life Awards: Gold Standard (2006); National Homebuilder Design Awards (2006); Civic Trust (2007).  It is a project that will be much referred to and used a future case study.  It is architecture which gives hope for us all for the future.”

Sunand Prasad, RIBA President, announced the winner and Kieran Long, Editor of The Architects' Journal presented with the prize and a cheque for £20,000.

Accordia beat off stiff competition from five other outstanding contenders: Amsterdam Bijlmer Arena Station, Amsterdam, Netherlands – Grimshaw and ARCADIS Architecten; Manchester Civil Justice Centre, Manchester - Denton Corker Marshall; Nord Park Cable Railway, Innsbruck, Austria – Zaha Hadid Architects; Royal Festival Hall, London - Allies and Morrison and Westminster Academy at the Naim Dangoor Centre, London - Allford Hall Monaghan Morris.

The RIBA Stirling Prize jury, comprising architecture specialists and lay judges visited all six shortlisted buildings and then met for a final time this afternoon to pick the winner.  The judges were Eva Jiricna architect, Eva Jiricna Architects; Gordon Murray – architect, Murray Dunlop Architects; Shelley McNamara – architect, Grafton Architects; Kieran Long – Editor, The Architects’ Journal and Diarmuid Gavin – garden designer, Diarmuid Gavin Designs.

This is the 13th year the RIBA Stirling Prize has been presented.  Last year's winner was the Museum of Modern Literature by David Chipperfield Architects..  The previous winners are: Barajas Airport in Madrid by Richard Rogers Partnership, The Scottish Parliament, designed by EMBT / RMJM, 30 St. Mary Axe by Foster and Partners; the Laban Centre, London by Herzog & de Meuron; Gateshead Millennium Bridge by Wilkinson Eyre; Magna, Rotherham by Wilkinson Eyre; Peckham Library and Media Centre by Alsop and Störmer; the NatWest Media Centre at Lord's Cricket Ground by Future Systems; the American Air Museum at Duxford by Foster and Partners; The Music School, Stuttgart by Michael Wilford and Partners; and the Centenary Building, University of Salford, by Hodder Associates.

The RIBA Special Awards honour the best buildings with special emphasis on: sustainable and inclusive design; conservation; exemplary school design, a one-off home and a project working within a smaller budget. The following winners of the RIBA Special Awards were also announced and presented at the ceremony this evening:

Oxley Woods, in Milton Keynes, won the Manser Medal sponsored by the Rooflight Company for the best one-off house or housing scheme designed by an architect in the UK.

The Sackler Crossing in Kew by David Sheppard Architects won the Stephen Lawrence Prize sponsored by the Marco Goldschmied Foundation, for the best example of a building with a construction budget of less than £1 million.

The Old Market Square, Nottingham by Gustafson Porter won the inaugural RIBA CABE Public Space Award which celebrates publicly accessible external space.

St Pancras International by Alastair Lansley (for Union Railways) won The Crown Estate Conservation Award.  The prize is awarded to the best work of conservation which demonstrates successful restoration or adaptation of an architecturally significant building.

The Manchester Civil Justice Centre, Manchester by Denton Corker Marshall won the RIBA Sustainability Award sponsored by English Partnerships. The prize is given to the building that demonstrates most elegantly and durably the principles of sustainable architecture.

Westminster Academy at the Naim Dangoor Centre by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris won the Sorrell Foundation Schools Award, was presented to the architects of the best RIBA award-winning school - primary or secondary - with the aim of raising the standards of design in all new school building.

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