Core Site in North East Cambridge building design, English masterplan architecture photos
Core Site in North East Cambridge News
19 April 2023
Team announced to design new urban quarter in Cambridge
Design: Kjellander Sjöberg Architects, Bell Phillips, Haworth Tompkins and 5th Studio, with Feilden Fowles, Nooma Studio and Alison Brooks Architects.
A group of international, national and local masterplanners and architects led by Kjellander Sjöberg Architects will shape a new mixed-use 120 acre neighbourhood in the North East of the city
The team includes award-winning practices Bell Phillips, Haworth Tompkins and 5th Studio
Core Site – new North East Cambridge urban quarter
Regeneration specialist U+I (a Landsec Company) and profit-with-purpose developer TOWN have appointed a team of local, national and international masterplanners and architects to design the new 120-acre development at the Core Site, a new mixed-use neighbourhood in North East Cambridge.
The masterplan is being designed by Swedish practice Kjellander Sjöberg Architects, supported by a large team of leading architecture practices including Bell Phillips, Haworth Tompkins, and 5th Studio Architects, with Feilden Fowles, Nooma Studio and Alison Brooks Architects.
Owned by Anglian Water and Cambridge City Council, the brownfield site is located just a ten-minute walk from Cambridge North station, neighboured by key employment districts including Cambridge Business Park, St John’s Innovation Park, and the world-renowned Cambridge Science Park. The high-density, mixed-use urban quarter is an ideal location for new homes and offices, supporting the city’s global reputation in the life sciences sector, boosting local employment and meeting the housing need in North East Cambridge.
Based around three key promises of championing people, city, and planet, the Core Site will be designed to support the health and wellbeing of residents, visitors, and workers, help shape the future of Cambridge, and be an exemplar for sustainable 21st century living.
U+I and TOWN’s proposals will include over 5,000 homes, with amenities and facilities such as schools, shops, workplaces, and parks located within easy walking distance. The team has approached the project with the principle of the five-minute neighbourhood as a key driver; helping residents meet most daily needs within a short walk of home.
A key tenet of the emerging quarter is to engage people and organisations around Cambridge – to ensure that Core Site is truly shaped by many. Numerous focus groups, workshops, co-design sessions and presentations culminated in the People City Planet Festival in October 2022, which brought together the project team and community so they could have a hand in shaping the future of Cambridge. Further engagement activities will be continuing throughout this year.
The Core Site is U+I’s first move into Cambridge, having successfully embarked on other significant regeneration schemes including Mayfield in Manchester. TOWN has already made its name in Cambridge as the enabling developer behind the award-winning Marmalade Lane scheme, the city’s first co-housing community.
Martyn Evans, Creative Director of U+I, said:
“As one of the last and largest brownfield sites in Cambridge, Core Site is a genuine opportunity to deliver an entire new neighbourhood on the edge of – but firmly rooted in – Cambridge, designed through extensive consultation with its people. The team has been appointed for its broad and deep expertise, including international practices with experience from exemplar projects across the globe, and local firms with invaluable knowledge of the city. We’re looking forward to this collaboration producing a world-class scheme which will become a blueprint for the delivery of new urban districts across the UK.”
Jonny Anstead, Director of TOWN, commented:
“We are thrilled to announce the appointment of Kjellander Sjöberg Architects as masterplanners for the Core Site. Their innovative approach to sustainable urban development aligns perfectly with TOWN and U+I’s shared vision for a new quarter that will be designed and delivered in collaboration with local people, organisations, and range of partners. With the insight and expertise of Kjellander Sjöberg Architects, the Core Site will be a community-orientated, vibrant and dynamic place that will improve people’s quality of life and enable more sustainable ways of living.”
Stefan Sjöberg, founding director of Kjellander Sjöberg Architects, added:
”The Core Site is a real opportunity to engage with Cambridge; to envision an amazing place that is inclusive, sustainable, and anchored into its unique heritage and local character with connections to the adjacent Fen landscape. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to shape an inspiring example of future neighbourhoods based on the principles of the five-minute city – where everything is near, and walking and biking are the priority.”
The site is owned by Anglian Water and Cambridge City Council and is currently home to the Cambridge Waste Water Treatment Plant in addition to an adjacent golf driving range, depot and commercial buildings. It is at the heart of the planned new district of North East Cambridge, which will deliver approximately 8,000 homes, with new workspaces and community facilities, and will be enabled by the proposed relocation of the Waste Water Treatment Plant.
The next steps for Core Site include further community engagement throughout 2023 to give the community further opportunities to input into the scheme; engagement with the Local Planning Authority and a detailed design process.
Planning submission is anticipated in late 2024.
U+I
U+I, a Landsec company, is a specialist regeneration developer and investor with one of the most significant portfolios of complex, mixed-use, community-focused regeneration projects in the UK. U+I exists to unlock urban sites in London, Manchester, Glasgow, Cambridge and Brighton that bristle with potential to create long-term socio-economic benefit for the communities in which it works, delivering highly sustainable returns. To find out more, visit www.uandiplc.com or follow us @uandiltd
TOWN
TOWN is a profit-with-purpose developer with a mission to build good places for better lives. TOWN deliver homes, streets and neighbourhoods that improve people’s quality of life, enable more sustainable ways of living and improve the wider places they are part of. To find out more, visit wearetown.co.uk or follow us @WeTweetTown
Kjellander + Sjöberg Arkitekter
Core Site in North East Cambridge masterplan development images / information received 190423
Location: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, south east England, UK
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Comments / photos for the Core Site in North East Cambridge design by Kjellander Sjöberg London Architects, Bell Phillips, Haworth Tompkins and 5th Studio page welcome
