West Hub launches

Open to all, the University's first co-working hub marks start of West Cambridge Innovation District development

Photography by Ståle Eriksen.

Photography by Ståle Eriksen.

The opening of the dynamic £40m West Hub, on the University’s West Cambridge Site, represents the start of a radical transformation of the research campus to create a new and lively destination quarter in the city - the West Cambridge Innovation District.

Featuring state-of-the-art buildings and cutting-edge laboratories, the West Cambridge Innovation District will be a world-leading home for research and enterprise, incorporating pedestrianised plazas, central gardens, lakes and urban orchards.

The West Hub sits at the heart of the emerging Innovation District, in JJ Thomson Avenue, offering a new and unique meeting place for people to connect and socialise, and marks a new University approach to learning spaces and shared-used resources.

Open and accessible to all departments at the University - as well as to members of the public - the co-working Hub enables new ways for academics, researchers, students, staff, businesses and the wider community to share, learn and collaborate through the flexible spaces it offers. The three-storey development – which features a shop, cafeteria and the site’s first bar – is situated in a highly sustainable environment, and is designed to be a focal point for the community. It will be open access to all from Monday to Friday, 8am to 9pm.

Anna Steeden, the West Hub’s Operations Manager, said: “The West Hub is a pioneering development, social in nature and designed from the ground floor up with people in mind. Above all it is a place of collaboration and co-working, designed to foster connectivity and serendipitous ‘collisions’ that spark new ideas. Its flexibility means its spaces can be configured to meet the daily needs of all Hub users - students, staff, and the wider community - and outside, its amenities will bring a new vibrancy to the site.”  

The cafe-bar at the West Hub, Cambridge
 Cafe-bar at the West Hub, Cambridge

Photography by Ståle Eriksen.

Photography by Ståle Eriksen.

One of the West Hub's study pods

The cafeteria at the West Hub, Cambridge

The cafeteria at the West Hub, Cambridge. Photography by Ståle Eriksen.

The cafeteria at the West Hub, Cambridge. Photography by Ståle Eriksen.

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.

West Hub, Cambridge

The West Hub, Cambridge. Photography by Ståle Eriksen.

The West Hub, Cambridge. Photography by Ståle Eriksen.

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.”

 

Atrium, leading to cafeteria, at West Hub, Cambridge

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.

Library service, West Hub

Library service, West Hub

Library service, West Hub

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

Snack bar, West Hub

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