The Technology Partnership (TTP), Melbourn

Best new building over £2m – Winner: The Technology Partnership (TTP), Melbourn

In this category there was one winner and one commendation.

Credits

Judges Comments

“This is a stunning addition to Cambridge’s science and technology’s campus-style buildings. It is a company headquarters and lab project that provides a benchmark for what can be achieved in a highly competitive and growing research and development market in the city and its surrounding rural villages. 

The TTP Group as client had very clear business objectives, while also recognising and capitalising on the fact that it is a long-established local employer that is also deeply embedded in the Melbourn community. The resulting brief looked far into the future to achieve a campus comprising three buildings that integrate building design and landscape, with an outcome that has clearly been formulated in close collaboration with employees (who wanted to all be on one floor, for ‘an equal footing’) and with local people (including a youth engagement programme). The project has been successfully achieved – firstly by an architect interpreting the client’s brief and their fundamental requirement of maximising flexibility in use and embedding the adaptability of internal spaces. Second, the project has been delivered by a highly skilled construction team. Third, the landscape setting for the buildings provides a series of tranquil spaces framed by over-sized grasses (there are deliberately no manicured lawns), and various seating areas and routes through/ a trim trail around the edge of the site for leisure/ exercise use by employees and local people alike. The entire development is fully accessible. The Hive provides a client-facing hub and lab spaces, while in the rest of the building, the open plan offices and meeting rooms, various categories of labs, and engineering-oriented workspaces are all designed for maximum flexibility in use. They can be quickly altered as lab walls and meeting rooms do not extend to the soffit; all of the lab benches and other furniture are ingeniously on castors, while temporary lighting can be fixed by employees onto service gantries as needed. Despite having space for several hundred employees, there is a calmness and quiet atmosphere created by the Hive’s grid layout, its fit-out and the dusky lighting throughout. In direct contrast, the Tech Barn is for larger scale potentially noisy science projects. Like the Hive, the Exchange is a multi-purpose building, including a staff canteen that converts into a learning space, as well as fitness and showering facilities (cycling is encouraged and has increased by 10 to 15% since moving to this site).”