CASE STUDY 2 U NIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE: N ORTH WEST CAMBRIDGE DE VELOPMENT A new urban district on former green belt land Dr Clare Melhuish UCL Urban Laboratory September 2015 2 Case study 2 University of Cambridge: North West Cambridge Development Summary 1. North West Cambridge development: aerial view of site, with boundary marked in red 2. CGI model of whole site development, viewed from south 3. CGI model of phase 1 development, viewed from southeast. Images courtesy University of 1 Cambridge/AECOM 2 3 This case study demonstrates how universities can be proactive in engaging with local planning authorities to bring forward new development which delivers sustainable housing provision and social infrastructure within the context of an urban extension. The 150ha NorthWest development forms part of an expansion plan for Cambridge designed to accommodate its growing economy and population, particularly in the science and technology sector. The University is recognized as central to that economy, as a leading global research institution, but its very success has highlighted the need to address issues around affordable housing and transport. Construction commenced in 2014 and the first phase, comprising university and market housing and a community centre, is due for completion by Spring 2017. Later phases will deliver additional housing and potentially academic research and translation facilities. The project is supported by a masterplan developed by Aecom, and will feature a range of work by different architects working together in teams across a number of sites. Design quality has been central to the development agenda, and is underpinned by Code 5 for Sustainable Homes and the BREEAM Excellent standard, in a bid to create a national flagship for sustainable development. 3 Case study 2 University of Cambridge: North West Cambridge Development Content Introduction Historical and policy contexts 1 Collegiate v. campus organisation 1.1 Growth of the postdoctoral research community 1.2 The need to attract and retain staff 1.3 The expansion of research facilities 1.4 Structures and processes 2 Funding: raising a bond 2.1 Project set-up: the Syndicate 2.2 Planning process: long-term engagement and partnership 2.3 Community engagement 2.4 Engagement through public art 2.5 Appointment and roles of masterplanners and architects 2.6 Design and planning process 2.7 Visions and narratives 3 University and city – ‘mixed and balanced’ 3.1 Design vision 3.2 Sustainability agenda and design code 3.3 Future flexibility for university estate 3.4 Place-making and naming 3.5 Translation into place 4 Site context 4.1 Phased construction process 4.2 Community infrastructure and social impacts 4.3 Future growth and the urban economy 4.4 Key issues and learning points 5 4 Case study 2 University of Cambridge: North West Cambridge Development Introduction ‘An urban extension with a proper sense of community’ Jonathan Nicholls, Registrary, 2014 1 The University of Cambridge’s North West Cambridge development, currently in the early stages of site preparation and construction, is not a typical urban regeneration scenario. Controversially it involved taking land out of the Green Belt, designated since the 1950s, but the university has successfully argued that its presence and continued international competitiveness is essential not only to its own future, but also to the city and region’s economic health through the coming decades. The new development, located on a 150-hectare area of university farmland between the M11, Madingley Road and Huntingdon Road, will provide some additional academic and research space, but primarily much- needed affordable housing for university staff and students. This is recognised as essential to the university’s ability to attract and recruit the best from around the world. It will also offer housing on the open market which has been in desperately short supply as a result of the ‘Cambridge phenomenon’ (the boom in science and technology-based industries based in the city), along with new social amenities. It has therefore been welcomed by the city council as an opportunity to promote a ‘flagship development’ which might raise the bar for other developers, especially in relation to sustainability criteria. As a local planning officer explains, ‘universities are seen as being able to push boundaries’ and ‘there’s motivation on both sides to have something that looks good in the long term’ (planning officer 2014).2 Historical and policy contexts 1 ‘Colleges provide an environment where academics live and work closely together, which is important to inspire and enhance creative thinking. The University wants to ensure that this productive academic environment is replicated at North West Cambridge, whilst being conscious of the need to create a wider community amongst all of the residents and workers on the site’ Working with You (University of Cambridge 2011:18) The North West Cambridge project has necessitated a shift of perspective on the historic college-based structure of the University’s institutional and social organisation which is not completely suited to the direction of future growth focused on research and translation activity and increasing numbers of research staff in the higher education sector. It demonstrates an interesting endeavour to balance that model with a more explicitly urban approach which accommodates both housing and academic activity within a university- orientated environment, and avoids the pitfalls of the segregated campus-style approach to university growth which have been manifested, and criticised, at other sites such as West Cambridge (masterplan 1995) and, even earlier, in the Cambridge Science Park (1970). Collegiate v. campus organisation 1.1 During its eight centuries in existence, the University of Cambridge has continuously developed a collegiate model of university teaching and living, dispersed through the city. Over time, new colleges have been created through particular endowments and taken root at increasing distances from the city centre where the oldest are concentrated, in more 5 Case study 2 University of Cambridge: North West Cambridge Development suburban residential areas; while other colleges have developed additional residential annexes in various locations to house their students, particularly at postgraduate level. In tandem with that process, faculty buildings have developed on particular concentrated sites distributed around the city, and in recent years the University has taken steps to utilise its extensive land holdings in order to add to the capacity of those sites with significant new ones, notably at West Cambridge, and the old Addenbrookes Hospital site to the south of the city. The net result of these accretive development processes over time has been a thorough physical intermixing of university and city amenities, in contrast to the campus model of higher education provision. Yet at the same time town and gown have not been exactly integrated, and tensions have persisted in the historical relationship between the two – as noted by the Cambridge Evening News: ‘From mutilations to murder, the university’s 799-year history is marked by a whole host of riots and atrocities between the “Town” and the scholars, or “Gown”’ (Brigham 2008). The collegiate model of courtyard development, secluded from the street and largely closed to public access, has ensured a significant degree of introversion and self-enclosure on the part of the university, which has also helped to shore up its perceived and real privileges. The challenge of the North West Cambridge development has then been to balance the advantages associated with a ‘collegiate atmosphere’ for academic work and achievement ‘at the highest international levels of excellence’ (University of Cambridge 2007:11), with a desire for increased integration, diffusion and societal impact. In the words of Professor Marcial Echenique from the university’s Department of Architecture, also an international planning consultant and early advisor on the North West Cambridge site: ‘the best thing about Cambridge is the way that the University is integrated into the normal fabric of the city and the public can dip in and out, [and] it’s important to retain that’ (Marcial Echenique 2013).3 Growth of the postdoctoral research community 1.2 However it also needs to address a phenomenon specific to the contemporary development of higher education, and that is the significant growth in postdoctoral research staff on temporary contracts, who have historically been rarely affiliated to or accommodated by the colleges – unlike established teaching staff and students. The latest estates strategy projection for growth (University of Cambridge 2007:9) in undergraduate numbers is 0.5% a year, while postgraduate students and ‘unestablished staff’ will increase by 2.0% a year. Research staff are crucial to the University’s development of its research, translation and impact activities in the future, and yet its inability to offer housing and social infrastructure provision of a high quality has become a significant problem in attracting and retaining such staff. There are many who feel that the postdoctoral community has been neglected and indeed barely recognised in the life of the University, and point out that it is high time that this issue was addressed, including some kind of pastoral framework. Since a majority of postdoctoral researchers come from overseas, they represent a significant and relatively rootless population of largely