CASE STUDY
Cambridge Innovation Park
Buildings 3 and 4 are the latest offices on the Cambridge Innovation Park for what will become one of the UK’s greenest and most sustainable, low carbon business villages.
CLIENT
Cambridge Innovation Parks Ltd
Architect
Saunders Architects
Delivery date
2023
Location
Waterbeach, Cambridge
Leading edge thinking in the pursuit of sustainable and effective solutions.
Buildings 3 and 4 are the latest offices on the Cambridge Innovation Park for what will become one of the UK’s greenest and most sustainable, low carbon business villages. The 90,000 square foot development at Waterbeach in Cambridge is a former Ministry of Defence site that will become home to a highly sustainable neighbourhood with offices, a crèche, cafes, a gym and abundant landscaped space incorporating a running track and cycling routes. It will also link to the proposed Waterbeach new town and new rail station. CRE8 Structures are the appointed civil and structural engineers for both buildings.
Two new buildings, one at three storeys high and one at two storeys high will join the existing campus to form a cohesive master plan with a landscaped park and water courses at its centre.
Embodied carbon
CIPL has high sustainability ambitions and stringent criteria for its designers to meet. Two new buildings of two and three storeys high are planned and will utilise 100% timber structures, using low cost, sawn timber as much as possible to keep the cost efficiency high and carbon neutrality easier to attain because of sequestration. Low embodied carbon concrete is also to be used in the foundations and ground slab to further reduce the impact of the construction.
Structural Solution
The structural system is a beam and column system on a 4.5m by 6.0m grid with only one central spine of columns and beams and stud walls on the perimeter. Timber cassettes were used as the long span elements to give a 6m clear span and a thin floor that kept the overall building height efficient. Many different floor systems and hybrid materials were explored but none met the clients’ objectives better than the long span cassettes and spine beam and column structure. The building has a concrete ground floor, and a small number of piles were required as the building loads were low but the risk of differential settlement necessitated them. The lowest floor could provide an appropriate level of vibration performance for vibration sensitive uses and laboratory space.
Project Challenges
The greatest challenge was to control the cost of timber framed construction, so during the early part of the design process an extensive series of options were developed containing: Glulam, CLT, Sawn timber cassettes and traditional materials to compare costs of each and for the client to make an informed choice on the structural frame. The use of sawn timber framed construction for office structural frames has been pioneered here and the client’s ultimate wish is to have the timber sourced locally from the UK. Throughout CRE8 Structures own in-house expertise has been employed in the development and deployment of the structural solutions working in conjunction with expertise from the trade contractors.
As part of the development an extended discussion with the timber industry was commenced in 2021 termed the Timber Challenge CRE8 Structures were asked to join an expert panel of judges to review and assess the various timber frame suppliers bidding for a position on the Cambridge Innovation Parks Ltd contractor framework to build part of the Waterbeach development and beyond. The winning parties would also be invited to develop their systems further in partnership with CIPL and BRE to assist in the uptake of timber as a mainstream product and to sustainably source local UK timber. The project is still ongoing.
Two new buildings, one at three storeys high and one at two storeys high will join the existing campus to form a cohesive master plan with a landscaped park and water courses at its centre.
Embodied carbon
CIPL has high sustainability ambitions and stringent criteria for its designers to meet. Two new buildings of two and three storeys high are planned and will utilise 100% timber structures, using low cost, sawn timber as much as possible to keep the cost efficiency high and carbon neutrality easier to attain because of sequestration. Low embodied carbon concrete is also to be used in the foundations and ground slab to further reduce the impact of the construction.
Structural Solution
The structural system is a beam and column system on a 4.5m by 6.0m grid with only one central spine of columns and beams and stud walls on the perimeter. Timber cassettes were used as the long span elements to give a 6m clear span and a thin floor that kept the overall building height efficient. Many different floor systems and hybrid materials were explored but none met the clients’ objectives better than the long span cassettes and spine beam and column structure. The building has a concrete ground floor, and a small number of piles were required as the building loads were low but the risk of differential settlement necessitated them. The lowest floor could provide an appropriate level of vibration performance for vibration sensitive uses and laboratory space.
Project Challenges
The greatest challenge was to control the cost of timber framed construction, so during the early part of the design process an extensive series of options were developed containing: Glulam, CLT, Sawn timber cassettes and traditional materials to compare costs of each and for the client to make an informed choice on the structural frame. The use of sawn timber framed construction for office structural frames has been pioneered here and the client’s ultimate wish is to have the timber sourced locally from the UK. Throughout CRE8 Structures own in-house expertise has been employed in the development and deployment of the structural solutions working in conjunction with expertise from the trade contractors.
As part of the development an extended discussion with the timber industry was commenced in 2021 termed the Timber Challenge CRE8 Structures were asked to join an expert panel of judges to review and assess the various timber frame suppliers bidding for a position on the Cambridge Innovation Parks Ltd contractor framework to build part of the Waterbeach development and beyond. The winning parties would also be invited to develop their systems further in partnership with CIPL and BRE to assist in the uptake of timber as a mainstream product and to sustainably source local UK timber. The project is still ongoing.
