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Akerman Road

‘Akerman Road’ is an extensive piece of public art by Sturgis, an exterior frieze on all four sides of a new public health centre in the Myatts Field North Redevelopment in Lambeth. It was commissioned following an invitation to apply selection process conducted by Modus Operandi (Public Art Commissioning Consultants). The £12.4 million building was procured for the NHS/ Lambeth Southwark and Lewisham LIFT Company by 'Building Better Health' and was completed in August 2012. The architects were Henley, Brown, Rorrison.

Strong precedents exist for commissioning fine artists to work on modernist public buildings (for example Pasmore; Nicholson; Halley). Sturgis was particularly interested to engage with the development of an NHS facility in a community close to where he lives. He created an integrated frieze of Cor-ten steel which extends across the surface of the lower level of the front and back of the 80m long building. At each end of the building he created concrete caste friezes. The Cor-ten frieze takes its design directly from the formal modernist abstract paintings for which Sturgis is well-known.

The design seeks to unify the disparate nature of the buildings that surround the new centre. Sturgis developed a design where grids, checks, and blocks—of different scales and intensities—obliquely refer to the architecture that surrounds the site. Referencing the utilitarian modernism of the mid twentieth century welfare state, he sought to make a contribution to the building which was human in scale, playful and thought-provoking. In addition, the perforated grid of the frieze integrates functionally with the ventilation system for the building which employs a biomass boiler. The building won the National RIBA Award Winner 2013 for buildings in London and the Building Better Healthcare Award for Best Primary Care Design 2013.