As part of the London Festival of Architecture, Sir Robert McAlpine, Battersea Power Station Development Company and ScottWhitbyStudio announced an exciting competition to procure the concept, detailed design, and tender information for a new site welfare facility within Phase 3 of the Battersea Power Station development at Nine Elms.

Site Welfare in the U.K. has come a long way in the past decade, previously having been dominated by sheds, Portakabins and bacon baps. Enlightened construction companies now treat their site operatives to healthy and nutritious food, in robust but well-designed environments. Sir Robert McAlpine has led the field and has created a number of award-winning site welfare facilities for its construction sites over the last five years.

Previous examples include the site welfare for Bloomberg’s new headquarters in the City of London and the recently completed welfare facility in Peter Foggo’s 1 Finsbury Avenue, made from the building’s discarded doors. Both of these projects employed students and recent graduates of London’s architecture schools to carry out the design.

This project aims to create a ‘best in class’ welfare facility for the SRM site operatives working to complete the Phase 3 buildings.

The facility will house over 2000 operatives for the two years prior to completion, providing them with a space to rest, relax and get ready for work on two architecturally striking buildings. It is the ambition of SRM and Battersea Power Station Development Company to create a class-leading facility that provides operatives with an experience that is genuinely different to what they expect from a site welfare facility. The facility should literally wake up the operatives, and provide a caring nurturing environment for all who enter it.

Tutors:

Jeff Tidmarsh, Ed Tidmarsh, Alex Scott-Whitby, Osman Marfo-Gyasi.

Student Participants: Garvin Joseet, Macenzee Tompson