Guy’s Hospital

The campus of Guy’s Hospital in London had evolved over time as an accumulation of uncoordinated buildings and a confusing and ugly environment. The back door had become the hospital’s main entrance and the deteriorating concrete boilerhouse next to it disorientated visitors, appearing out of place near a main entrance. The studio began by addressing the larger problems of the site, including enlarging the pavements, improving parking and reorganizing the traffic so that it became safer and easier to drop off a passenger. However the heart of the project seemed to be to transform the perception of the hospital’s entrance as a proper front door. As well as addressing the deterioration of the concrete and a building that was prone to overheating, the studio chose to turn the boilerhouse into a visual signpost for the main entrance. Reimagining the panels of sculptural tiles that often embellish the entrances of mid-century modern housing and office blocks, the studio designed a system of large undulating woven stainless steel tiles, each 2.5 metres wide, to clad the boilerhouse. The panels act as a breathable skin for the boilerhouse and are demountable to allow access to the equipment inside, while their highly textured surfaces discourage graffiti. The tiles are rotated and arranged to generate a larger three-dimensional pattern that ripples across the building’s surface and offers multiple layers of texture for the eye to read, from the large undulations to the hundreds of fine steel wires that form the individual woven ribbons.