Market engagement on plans to deliver the renewal of the Barbican Arts Centre building services infrastructure

Tender description

This notice is published to advertise a market engagement exercise being conducted by the City of London Corporation (The City), the owners of the Barbican Arts Centre. The City wishes to engage with suppliers who have experience of dealing with projects of a similar nature and similar facilities to the Barbican Arts Centre, in order to determine a procurement route that is compatible with market requirements. The City wish to procure a contracting partner to deliver the total renewal of the Barbican Arts Centre’s building services infrastructure whilst minimising the disruption to operations of one of Europe’s largest Arts Centres. Further details are contained in this notice at section II.2.4 which sets out the issues on which the City is seeking feedback and views from the market. The contract value is expected to be between £50m and £150m over a multi phased period (5 to 10 years ). The first phase of the contract is expected to be between £5m and £10m and take place in 2024/2025. Any subsequent phases of the contract will be subject to funding and there is no guarantee of any works at this stage. Lot 1: The aim of the Barbican Renewal programme is to renew the Barbican Art Centre building and infrastructure so that it continues to meet the needs of 21st century artists, audiences, and communities. Reflecting the Barbican’s organisational purpose to be a creative catalyst for arts, curiosity and enterprise, this investment programme in the Grade II listed complex will celebrate the Barbican’s vision and design heritage, while responding to the creative opportunities and challenges of the future. The Barbican Renewal programme aims to deliver a leading example of sensitive and sustainable conservation and retrofit for one of the UK’s most significant post war buildings, with the aim of: • Repairing the Barbican building to ensure it can continue to function long into the future, through an urgent programme of replacement and upgrade of key building systems • Better connecting the Barbican as a place for everyone by re-connecting the Centre to its surroundings. This will involve creating a better sense of welcome, providing more reasons to visit, improving wayfinding and accessibility, and delivering new and improved public spaces • Bringing underused spaces into new creative use – without adding an extra square metre of development. This includes investing in existing venues and bringing spaces that have laid dormant for years back to life, putting art and creativity at the heart of their future use • Responding to the climate emergency and put sustainability at the heart of plans, contributing to the City of London’s net zero ambitions and investing in environmental improvements that reduce water usage and increase biodiversity across the site Since the appointment of a design team in 2022 – led by Allies & Morrison, Asif Khan Studio and Buro Happold – in depth conversations, workshops and listening exercises have been held with the public and stakeholders to better understand people’s aspirations and priorities for the Centre and inform the development of early design ideas. From the initial design work and condition surveys it is clear that the existing (40 years old) building services infrastructure will require total renewal in the near future. This work needs to be carefully planned in the context of live operational Arts Centre that is committed to delivering many pre-booked Arts programmes in all venues. The engineers (Buro Happold) are developing the masterplan of the MEP infrastructure upgrade, considering low carbon technology and predicted future climate change. This will be defining the long-term future infrastructure principle of the Barbican Arts Centre. The City require a suitably experienced MEP contractor to partner with and deliver the building services renewal in accordance with the masterplan. The first phase of the masterplan will address the most urgent works and is likely to involve the replacement and upgrade of elements of HVAC and electrical works etc. Further phases of work will be developed with the contacting partner until the building services infrastructure is fully renewed. The City wish to ensure the procurement approach is appropriate for the market and an equitable arrangement is developed for the appointment of a long-term contracting partner.