London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Tavistock Place 2

Located in the heart of the Bloomsbury Conservation Area, the £23m building replaces a former shed on a constrained landlocked site behind the School’s existing Tavistock Place building. The result is 3,736 sqm of flexible, sustainable and high-quality space arranged over five storeys above ground and one basement level.

The concept, A Bloomsbury Garden, responds to the surrounding conservation context and the need to create a calm, collaborative working environment within a dense urban site. Extensively planted roof terraces are framed by patinated brass cladding, while privacy screens incorporate laser-cut artwork inspired by the School’s history in epidemiology.

Internally, circulation coils around a light-filled atrium at the heart of the building. This central space supports spontaneous social interaction and creates a more vibrant, collaborative workplace where cross-disciplinary research can flourish.

Seating steps at reception provide a social hub for users across both buildings on the site. Workspaces are arranged as neighbourhoods off the atrium, with a mix of shared team areas, quiet rooms, meeting rooms and cellular PI offices to support different modes of working, from focused research to collaboration.

The project achieved BREEAM Excellent and forms a key part of the School’s wider plan to strengthen teaching and research in public health.