Cambourne Business Park, Cambridge, UK
Working closely with South Cambridgeshire District Council, we created a new workplace strategy for the Council which had previously been accommodated in poor, almost exclusively cellular offices in an outmoded building
Project Details
Collective Team
Their resulting headquarters building is situated on Cambourne Business Park, the business park we were appointed to master plan as an integral part of the new town of Cambourne, west of Cambridge.
The 21Ha business park is designed to provide up to 70,000sqm of first class office, research and development accommodation in six buildings sited around a landscaped square, adjacent to the central infrastructure lake and balancing ponds.
South Cambridgeshire District Council’s headquarters building forms Phase 6 of the development and was designed specifically for occupation by them, and we worked closely with them to create a new workplace strategy.
SCDC had a clearly defined programme which necessitated a demanding design and construction programme. The building also had to achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating and contractually-binding internal climate conditions.
Our initial design input proposed a ‘low energy’ sustainable concept and an open internal environment to encourage communication and a welcoming environment for visitors and public users of the building.
Our concept created naturally-ventilated, open plan offices on 15m floorplates, set around an open street that acts as a stack to further encourage the ventilation strategy.
Limited cellular space is located at the ends of the plates and specialist areas are concentrated in the west wing at ground and first floor. We worked closely with the client’s agents to develop the base build design, incorporating the specific requirements of the office environment and access for the public and visitors. A clear distinction was made to define the base build and user enhancements together with a Cat B fitout.
At completion, the project was winner of the BCO Regional Award for Best Commercial Corporate Workplace
