Lambeth Palace Library and Archive

The new library and archive at Lambeth Palace houses one of the world’s most important religious literature collections.

A city street lined with trees leading up to a tall building in the background

Key information

Architect

Wright and Wright Architects

Client

Church Commissioners for England

Value

£25M

Year of Completion

2021

Sector

Challenge

The library and archive is the first new building on the site for almost two hundred years, and was welcomed by The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings as a ‘high-quality new design’ in the historic context. The Palace’s collection of books and manuscripts is second only in Europe to the Vatican’s, with some records stretching back to the ninth century. A driving motivation for the new building is to raise the collection above ground level and save it from the risk of flooding.

Working alongside Wright & Wright Architects, we provided MEP, acoustics, lighting and sustainability consultancy from project inception to completion, to bring the eight-storey, contemporary brick building in the grounds of the Grade I-listed Palace to life. The building includes working, teaching and display spaces and serves as a focal point for scholars and students researching the history of the Church of England.

The client's brief was for a low-carbon building, so our design uses the building's structure and fabric as a climate modifier to avoid expensive, complex and energy-intensive air conditioning solutions. A decision was made early on to opt for an all-electric building with no fossil fuel heating.

Responsive design

We recommended that the client add a conservation physicist to the team to provide specialist advice and challenge our ideas with their experience. This led to the strongrooms evolving into a hybrid design whereby they are allowed to follow seasonal fluctuations within an extended range, and the plant provided additional temperature and humidity adjustments, as well as air circulation, if and when required. This also allowed a simple environmental control system to be implemented.

We produced an energy and carbon operational target and risk schedule to both demonstrate to the client what was to be achieved and how, and to allow monitoring of the development of the design throughout the procurement, installation and operational phases of the project. This helped the project achieve the targeted BREEAM Rating of ‘Excellent’.

"This unique building serves two primary functions. Firstly, we wanted to work with the client and team to provide a modern and inspiring building for users to work and study. Good views, daylight, acoustics and fresh air were all key to this. Secondly, there was a clear need to provide a robust solution for the long-term preservation of the archive and library - a stable and ideal environment to house the collections."

MEng CEng MCIBSE
Senior Engineer
Partner