The University of Cambridge has taken day-to-day control of its new West Hub.
West Hub is a “collaborative space” for the West Cambridge Innovation District. It is to be used by students, academics, researchers, businesses and the wider community.
The new 4,647m² building sits in the centre of the university’s west-of-city site, adjacent to Madingley Road. This edge-of-town campus is already home to several STEM departments and the soon-to-be-completed Ray Dolby Centre, which augments the Cavendish Laboratory.
West Hub houses a library and study, meeting and teaching spaces. There are also catering spaces on the ground floor. The building was rated ‘excellent’ by BREEAM as a low-energy building. It achieved an estimated 10% reduction in carbon emissions with technologies such as ground source heat pumps, estimated to produce around 80% of required heating and hot water.
It was designed by Jestico + Whiles and built by Bouygues.
The building was officially completed at the end of April.
Each storey within the building has a different height. The building is clad in folded and perforated aluminium, from beneath which integrated lighting glows at dusk.
Andy Neely, pro-vice-chancellor for enterprise and business relations, said the building “represents the start of the site’s transformation into a more outward-facing campus, to ‘put the science on show’, nurture the entrepreneurial strengths of the Cambridge Cluster”.
“The West Hub is a vital milestone towards supporting an impactful innovation district that will help the university to retain its globally competitive position,” said Matt Allen, project director at the University of Cambridge.
Photographs by Ståle Eriksen, via Jestico + Whiles.
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