West Hub launches

As well as connecting industry with academic expertise, to support collaboration and enterprise, the West Hub provides additional learning space for the University, and will house teaching for the University’s landmark Foundation Year programme, which will welcome its first cohort of students in October 2022.

Access for the local community is actively encouraged; the Hub’s two main entrances are strategically located across from one another to provide a pedestrian route through the building, encouraging people to enter and use the facilities available as they pass through.

The caféteria and bar at ground level will open directly into green space and external seating, landscaped to include rain gardens and recreational space, and close to an east to west pedestrian and cycle path. The Hub’s upper floors incorporate a library service, media lab, multi-use spaces, learning resource areas, and workspaces ranging from informal open areas through to individual study pods. Learning spaces and meeting rooms are available to businesses and the wider community outside of core teaching times, for activities including social and networking events, talks and art exhibitions.

Professor Andy Neely, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Enterprise and Business Relations at the University of Cambridge, said: “The launch of the West Hub has created a new heart for the West Cambridge Innovation District, and represents a new way of bringing people together and providing co-working spaces, for University departments, research collaborations, local businesses, and local residents. It also represents the start of the site’s transformation into a more outward-facing campus, to ‘put the science on show’, nurture the entrepreneurial strengths of the Cambridge Cluster, and take the University’s world-leading research and technology to the next level.”

Professor Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, said: “The West Hub will connect people from different departments of the University, and beyond. I am particularly thrilled that this state-of-the art building will host teaching for the Cambridge Foundation Year, which will welcome its first intake of students at the start of the next academic year. It is fitting that such a new and innovative building should host such a new and innovative programme.”

 

Designed by acclaimed architecture practice, Jestico + Whiles, the West Hub is a low-energy building which has scored an ‘Excellent’ BREEAM (Building Research Establishment (BRE) Environmental Assessment Method) rating. High-performance building fabric and ‘passive design’ measures – which use the building’s geometry and the natural movement of heat, air and light to keep conditions comfortable - reduce the Hub’s energy demand, which is further reduced by ‘active design’ measures such as lighting sensors and heat recovery. Low and zero carbon technologies - including an optimised ground source heat pump system - have helped achieve a 10% reduction in carbon emissions in accordance with planning requirements, moving away from gas as the primary fuel for generating heating and hot water.

As well as providing good quantities of natural daylight, the West Hub’s design incorporates growing plants and trees within the fabric of the building, including two lush internal gardens located in light-filled atriums.

James Tatham, Director, Jestico + Whiles, said: “We approached the design by focusing on the essential human need for connectivity and collaboration. As such, we were able to deploy our specialist skills in sectors that are often disparate – research, education, co-working and cafeteria and bar design – to create a truly holistic, blended use scheme that responds dynamically to the changing needs of the university year.”

The West Cambridge Innovation District scheme was approved by Cambridge City Council in 2021, subject to a section 106 agreement. The site – where The Ray Dolby Centre will be the new centrepiece of the Cavendish Laboratory - is already home to brilliant research in technology and the physical sciences. The University sits at the heart of the so-called ‘Cambridge Cluster’, in which more than 5,300 knowledge-intensive firms employ more than 67,000 people and generate £18 billion in turnover.

Details of how to visit and use the West Hub are available at the Hub's website, here: www.westcambridgehub.uk

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