Planning permission was granted on 28 March for a landmark new facility at the University’s West Cambridge site.
The 5,000m2 Shared Facilities Hub (SFH) will provide providing flexible teaching and study space for academics, students and staff from all departments and faculties, as well as catering and library facilities. Its amenities will also be open to the local community.
The hub is a vital part of the University’s masterplan for West Cambridge, which will transform the site into a world-leading centre of research and development. As the population of students and researchers on the site increases, the SFH will provide the social and educational spaces that they need.
As well as enhancing the quality and variety of teaching and study space available in West Cambridge, the SFH has been designed to promote an integrated and lively research environment. Providing a mix of food and drink outlets, social spaces and meeting facilities, the hub will be a central meeting place for people from different departments across the site. The building has been designed to encourage social interaction and extend vitality on the site beyond the traditional working day.
Chris Young, Chair of the Project Board for the Shared Facilities Hub for the University of Cambridge, said: “The University is planning for the next generation of scientists and engineers through the development of the West Cambridge site. The ambition is to create spaces that nurture collaboration between and beyond academics and researchers, which the new shared facilities hub will bring, and to foster a greater sense of place.”
The Shared Facilities Hub is the second planning consent to be secured for the West Cambridge site in two months following February’s permission for the proposed new Cavendish Laboratory building - a major new project to replace existing facilities for the Department of Physics.
Construction of the Shared Facilities Hub will begin in 2019 with a planned completion date of early 2021.
Image courtesy of jestico + whiles