Southbank Centre Festival Wing

The Brief

This project saw the comprehensive restoration and refurbishment of the Southbank Centre’s iconic 1960s modernist Festival Wing buildings, which encompass the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery. The brief required the full overhaul of facilities and infrastructure whilst ensuring the revitalised buildings could support a wider artistic programme and become fully accessible to all.

Many of the internal bespoke original building features and finishes were retained and enhanced but the buildings were largely stripped back to their structure with unused and underused spaces reclaimed. The building services were updated, major plant replaced and infrastructure renewed to meet 21st century standards and improve the flexibility and performance of the buildings whilst significantly reducing energy demand.

Externally the Hayward Gallery’s iconic pyramid roof-lights were renewed in a modern form with new structural hanging points added to allow the roof to work as originally intended by, bringing natural light into the upper galleries again.

Client

Arts Council England

Location

London SE1

Architect

Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios

Size

150,000 ft²

Sector

  • Arts
  • Culture

Services

  • Project Monitoring

The Challenge

Based on our experience of working with arts organisations on other build projects we were appointed by Arts Council England at the end of RIBA Stage 2. Our role was to provide specialist capital project monitoring support to ACE’s Capital Projects Team and the Southbank Centre during the detailed design development, procurement and construction phases of this complex major project through to the reopening of its venues.

Our core mission was to ensure the build project remained appropriately focused and on course in the face of issues and challenges and associated programme and cost risks.

The Outcome

We were able to apply our wealth of knowledge of the key risk areas and issues, gained from our experience across a wide range of cultural and refurbishment projects, to feed into and assist the project’s management and decision making processes. This support helped ensure that the key stakeholder objectives of the project were retained and achieved.

The re-imagined space re-opened to great critical acclaim, with RIBA praising the way the “refurbished buildings celebrate the uniqueness of the Southbank Centre and truly enhance the visitor and performer experience”.

Pyramid Rooflights
0
Reduction in electricity use
0 %
People walk past the buildings every year
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“I am so glad that this has happened. That the Hayward is being respected.”
Anthony Gormley
Artist

Other Projects We’ve Completed Include

BAFTA

Newport Street Gallery

Hauser & Wirth Somerset