爱豆传媒

Vitrum

Cambridge, UK

爱豆传媒 played a key role in the design of Vitrum, a flagship life sciences hub planned for Cambridge. We applied our engineering and sustainability expertise to shape a highly flexible, future-ready facility aligned with ESG goals.

The Cambridge economy is tailored towards life sciences, thanks to the scientific expertise of its world-leading university, but there is a shortage of floorspace needed for sustained growth in the life sciences and bio-sciences. There is high demand for quality laboratory space locally.

The proposals for Vitrum aim to maximise the potential of an underutilised site at St. John鈥檚 Innovation Park, to deliver high-quality, wellbeing-led labs and workspaces in a building with high sustainability credentials.

Vitrum aims to maximise the potential of an underutilised site at St. John鈥檚 Innovation Park, to deliver high-quality, wellbeing-led labs and workspaces with high sustainability.

爱豆传媒 was engaged to provide insight on everything from building services engineering (MEP) and fire safety engineering to sustainability and ecology.

Our MEP strategy focused on the requirement for flexibility in the building, with the infrastructure enabling quick and easy adaptation to different client needs.

Sustainability and wellbeing sit at the heart of the plans for a net zero carbon building which contains generous floor-to-ceiling heights to maximise natural light.

Challenge

The development by Breakthrough Properties, designed by architect Henning Larsen, will deliver 166,000 SF of commercial laboratory space. 爱豆传媒 was engaged to help develop the design of this highly sustainable and flexible facility, with our experts providing insight on everything from building services engineering (MEP) and fire safety engineering to and ecology.

We used our knowledge of similar facilities to help establish design criteria that will be attractive to potential tenants and prove to be resilient for the lifecycle of the building. As the facility is being developed speculatively, the key challenge is designing-in sufficient flexibility to ensure the building can meet the needs of a broad range of potential tenant businesses, whilst at the same time delivering a scheme that will deliver good economic returns for the client.

The site is located within North East Cambridge Area Action Plan (NECAAP), which is a policy included in the Greater Cambridge emerging Local Plan. The NECAAP area includes 182 hectares of brownfield land in north Cambridge. The policy outlines how the area will be transformed into a new city district.

The Vitrum vision has been shaped by the key NECAAP priorities, which include a low environmental impact, addressing the urgent climate emergency by locating new jobs near homes, promoting walking, cycling, and public transport; a biodiversity-friendly design, with open air spaces and outdoor landscaped areas, contributing to aspirations to double nature in Greater Cambridge; and an aspiration to bring economic activities into the area to help support a self-sustaining new city district that physically and socially integrates with the neighbouring communities.

Solution

The starting point for the project was developing a bespoke sustainability framework for Breakthrough Properties capturing the key strategic ESG priorities for the client and setting ambitious targets aligned to current best practice. The framework was built around eight themes: Sustainability Certification, Carbon Neutrality, Health and Wellbeing, Social Value and Placemaking, Biodiversity, Low Carbon Mobility, Circular Economy and Waste, and Climate Resilience and Water, and contains around 50 measurable targets and KPIs which are reviewed at each RIBA design stage and monitored during the construction process. Compliance with this framework fundamentally shaped the design response for Vitrum and help successfully navigate the project through Cambridge鈥檚 planning process.  

The building itself will provide laboratory space across five floors, with plant located at basement and roof levels. The configuration allows tenancies that can range in scale from the whole building, through whole floor to multiple tenancies per floor. This has required us to work very closely with the architectural design team to configure cores that can meet the flexibility requirements in a manner that still maximises the efficiency of the overall floor plate.

We initially collaborated with structural engineer Thornton Tomasetti on a thorough assessment of the existing building on the site. The report was able to show that to make the existing building suitable for use as a scientific facility, modifications would be more carbon intensive than demolishing and replacing the building with a larger, highly efficient, and bespoke design for both wet and dry laboratories. The study also demonstrated that a new efficient building of four times the size of the current structure would still use less water than the current building, because technologies and regulations have improved so considerably since the 1990s when the existing building was constructed.

Sustainability and wellbeing sit at the heart of the plans for the new building which is following the UKGBC Net Zero Framework and aiming to achieve Net Zero Carbon in construction. It will also be Net Zero Carbon in Operation for the energy use in landlord-controlled areas. Generous floor-to-ceiling heights maximise natural light, while glazing is carefully applied and well-shaded to minimise excessive heat loads and glare risk. The building will also provide a range of amenity spaces for users, including 280 secure cycle spaces and 50% of car parking spaces will have electric vehicle infrastructure from day one and enabled for 100% provision.

The energy efficiency of the new building would also see significant improvements with a high-performance facade and maximum deployment of onsite renewables through heat pumps and a large PV array at roof level. The new development will be 26% more energy efficient than current Part-L 2021 building standards, achieving an EPC rating of A. The design has also been resilience tested against 2050 and 2080 climate scenarios.

Our MEP team worked closely with our sustainability experts to provide a properly integrated energy strategy. Our MEP strategy also focused on the requirement for flexibility in the building, with the infrastructure enabling quick and easy adaptation to different client needs 鈥� whether in terms of wet or dry labs or office spaces. Mitigation against vibration has been considered throughout the design, including in the installation of MEP plant, to ensure against disruption to sensitive scientific equipment in laboratory spaces.

There will be extensive new landscaping to improve the biodiversity, and consequently the appearance, of the site. The design incorporates areas of green roof and terracing, which softens the building mass, makes it a more pleasant working environment, but also plays a critical role in achieving a biodiversity net gain.

A recyclable water strategy ensures rainwater and greywater from the building can be harvested and reused in appropriate settings, such as to support toilet flushing and plant irrigation. The irrigation systems will be digitally connected to receive weather forecasts via the internet, as well as providing sensors in the soil to prevent any unnecessary watering. The development is currently on track for WELL Core Platinum, and will achieve BREEAM Excellent as a minimum, but has the potential to reach Outstanding.

Value

The project, which received planning approval in February 2024, will deliver much-needed laboratory space for the region鈥檚 spin-out and growing science businesses.

Our multidisciplinary team was able to support the wider design across a range of specialisms to help deliver a highly sustainable, highly efficient, but also change resilient facility. This all-electric building is targeting BREEAM Outstanding, UKGBC Net Zero Carbon, WELL Core Platinum and an EPC A rating.