Complex build challenges for London PBT facility

Edward Williams, an architect who runs his own practice, Edward Williams Architects, and Sheila Carney, director of Scott Tallon Walker Architects, and a specialist in the healthcare and science and research sector, discuss the challenges of designing the NHS in England’s second proton beam therapy centre, for University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, in a central London location – close to existing infrastructure such as underground ‘tube’ lines – and explain how the major obstacles were overcome.

University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) viewed the development of its new Proton Beam Therapy centre in the Grafton Way Building at University College Hospital as an urgent and vital milestone in the process of improving healthcare for the local community – by moving existing services to an integrated and centralised campus, and introducing a world-leading proton beam therapy unit as a significant enhancement to therapeutic cancer treatment services throughout the UK. The vision for the new hospital was to create a world-class, modern, safe, and responsive healthcare environment which would in turn will facilitate better clinical outcomes, as well as an improved environment for staff, patients, and visitors, with clinical services that reflect UCLH as a world-class centre of excellence.

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