Cambridge City Council has granted AstraZeneca planning permission for its new global R&D centre and corporate headquarters, allowing the build to go ahead. The purpose built facility will be located on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and will be home to approximately 2,000 employees.
Following the Council's decision Mene Pangalos, Executive Vice President, Innovative Medicines & Early Development at AstraZeneca said: 'Work is underway to prepare the site on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and we look forward to beginning construction in the spring.'
The Cambridge site will bring together AstraZeneca’s small molecule and biologics research and development activity, and will become the company’s largest centre for oncology research, as well as housing scientists focused on cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, respiratory, inflammation and autoimmune diseases and conditions of the central nervous system. The site will also be home to a joint research centre, which will see Medical Research Council-supported researchers working side-by-side with AstraZeneca’s high throughput screening group.
In advance of the new site becoming operational at the end of 2016, over 400 AstraZeneca staff have already relocated to interim facilities in Cambridge, at the Melbourn Science Park, Cambridge Science Park and Granta Park, to cement important relationships with other members of the Cambridge life science community. This is in addition to the approximately 500 staff already located at the Company’s MedImmune facility at Granta Park.
AstraZeneca is seeking Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREAAM) Excellent status for the site, which will feature labs that represent best practice in low energy design and the largest ground source heat pump in Europe. 'Green Rooves' will also be installed across the majority of the site.
As its largest oncology research centre, the new site will also include a purpose-designed rodent facility principally to support early stage cancer research.
Stefan Marbach, Senior Partner at Herzog & de Meuron, the architects selected to design the new site said: 'In designing the new building we made reference to the historical colleges in central Cambridge, which are typically low-rise buildings enclosing a central courtyard. The building's proportions draw on this, as well as the open public access to the courtyard. The whole structure is connected in a single loop, providing short connections within the building and modern, innovative workspaces that support collaborative working. The ‘saw-tooth’ roof, which carries on through to the facade, aims to unify the appearance of the building and give it a distinctive character.'
The R&D Enabling Building will house functions that support AstraZeneca’s scientific work, including regulatory affairs and commercial units. The Energy Centre will support the entire site and will contain power generators, heating and cooling systems as well as other support systems such as IT and telecommunications.
Skanska has won a £300 m contract for the construction management of the R&D center and corporate headquarters.
Herzog & de Meuron also developed the plan for Roche's new R&D site in Basel, Switzerland, where a large part of the Basel workforce will be brought together in modern laboratories and offices on the site around Grenzacherstrasse.