Unit 440 Cambridge Science Park

The building forms part of a wider strategy to renew and densify the park, which is home to 7,000 people across 170 companies from start-ups to global technology leaders. The brief called for a highly sustainable and flexible building with a distinct identity, able to meet the demanding requirements of laboratory and research environments while remaining adaptable for future tenants. Designed in collaboration with Allies and Morrison and the wider team, the project will also rework the surrounding public realm, establishing a new landscaped park at the campus’ western gateway.

We are providing structural and civil engineering design for the building and landscape. Labs typically rely on heavy concrete structures to achieve the mass and stiffness needed for footfall performance. To avoid the carbon penalty of this approach, we have carried out extensive option studies to develop a hybrid frame combining precast concrete floor slabs with timber stiffening ribs locked together to work compositely. The solution retains the performance benefits of concrete while cutting embodied carbon and harnessing timber’s carbon storage. An optimised column grid forms simple, modular floorplates, and piled foundations support a raised ground floor to reduce excavation and material use.

The surrounding public realm will tie the building into the wider campus with new landscaped routes and a central park space. SuDS features are integrated throughout, with permeable paving and sub-base storage capturing and filtering rainwater.

The building will give the park a new arrival point and provide robust, future-proofed spaces that can evolve with changing research and workplace needs.