Research campus buildings could be in place by 2027

The first new buildings as part of an expansion of a major research campus could be completed by 2027, developers said.

Plans have been in the works for several years to expand the Wellcome Genome Campus at Hinxton, near Cambridge.

South Cambridgeshire District Council gave planning permission for the two new "gateway" buildings at the park, offering research and office space as well as a pub and cafe.

The overall expansion plan could see the number of people working there treble from 3,000 to 9,000.

Gensler, the company appointed by the Wellcome Genome Campus to design the first life science buildings in the park expansion, said work could start later this year, or early 2026, and the target was to complete construction by mid-2027.

Outline planning permission for the project was granted in 2020 and as well as increasing the size of the site and the number of people employed, up to 1,500 homes are planned for people working at the campus and their families, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Nathan Morgan, Gensler's project director, said the wider masterplan for the expansion included facilities for the new "micro community", including a community centre, a pool, and health centre.

"We don't want it to be a business hours only campus, they want it to be activated on the evenings, on the weekends, and to have people really be using it for what it is, so it is not this sort of traditional business park you might find in other parts," he said.

The company also said it planned to plant semi-mature trees at the site to ensure that when the buildings opened there would be "reasonably well advanced larger trees on day one" rather than saplings.

Jonathan Clarke, design director at Gensler, said: "The landscape architects have done a really good job of really considering this landscape over time but also how it feels on day one, which is really important."

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