AstraZeneca last friday revealed the proposed designs for its new Global R&D Centre and Corporate Headquarters in Cambridge in the UK. The plans for the new facility, which will be located on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus (CBC), include designs for the Global Centre, an R&D Enabling Building and an Energy Centre1.

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has revealed plans for its £330 million headquarters, which promises to bring 2,000 jobs to Cambridge.

The new site will bring together AstraZeneca’s small molecule and biologics research and development activity, opening up opportunities to exploit the promise of biologics and small molecule combinations. The CBC will be the new UK home for biologics research and protein engineering carried out by MedImmune, AstraZeneca’s biologics arm. MedImmune already employs around 500 people at Granta Park, to the south east of the city.

Herzog & de Meuron propose a two-storey disc with a unique oval shape that creates a continuous protected walk along the building. The disc is supported by transparent blocks of laboratories and amenities, which articulate a porous ground floor and form the primary spatial experience by framing a central courtyard. The courtyard is open to the public and encompasses the three main entrances to the building. The proportion and scale of the courtyard refer to the historical colleges in central Cambridge. Large trees and the green lawn in the centre of the courtyard establish a place for recreation and informal meetings. The internal design of the building promotes visible science in a synergetic, sharing environment. High-technology laboratories are separated from work and circulation spaces by translucent partitions, fostering a workplace environment based on communication and collaboration. A ring area on the first and second floor overlooking the central courtyard provides a large diversity of spaces and arrangements for employees to meet, work and exchange. The saw-tooth roof brings top light into the deep floor plates. The zig-zag geometry of the roof is continued vertically, structuring the facade and giving it this distinctive character.

The AstraZeneca Campus comprises a North and a South plot and is located on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. The masterplan will be delivered in phases. The first phase includes the Global R&D Centre and Corporate Headquarters with the central courtyard on the North plot; it also includes the R&D Enabling Building and the Energy Centre on the South plot. Subsequent development will follow the completion of the first phase. Planned are a series of buildings on the South plot enclosing an elongated park that uses a similar formal planting language as the courtyard on the North plot. A consistent material palette throughout the North and the South plot unifies all buildings. The landscape concept creates a green carpet into which individual buildings, path systems and infrastructure are embedded and that allows a continuous visual connection between the separate elements. 

Stefan Marbach, Senior Partner at Herzog & de Meuron, the architects selected to design the new site in Cambridge, 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.”

 

 

 

Read more
Read less

More information

Herzog & de Meuron Architekten is a Swiss architecture firm, founded and headquartered in Basel, Switzerland in 1978. The careers of founders and senior partners Jacques Herzog (born 1950), and Pierre de Meuron (born 1950), closely paralleled one another, with both attending the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich. They are perhaps best known for their conversion of the giant Bankside Power Station in London to the new home of the Tate Museum of Modern Art (2000). Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have been visiting professors at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design since 1994 (and in 1989) and professors at ETH Zürich since 1999. They are co-founders of the ETH Studio Basel – Contemporary City Institute, which started a research programme on processes of transformation in the urban domain.

Herzog & de Meuron is a partnership led by five Senior Partners – Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Christine Binswanger, Ascan Mergenthaler and Stefan Marbach. An international team of 38 Associates and about 362 collaborators.

Herzog & de Meuron received international attention very early in their career with the Blue House in Oberwil, Switzerland (1980); the Stone House in Tavole, Italy (1988); and the Apartment Building along a Party Wall in Basel (1988).  The firm’s breakthrough project was the Ricola Storage Building in Laufen, Switzerland (1987).  Renown in the United States came with Dominus Winery in Yountville, California (1998). The Goetz Collection, a Gallery for a Private Collection of Modern Art in Munich (1992), stands at the beginning of a series of internationally acclaimed museum buildings such as the Küppersmühle Museum for the Grothe Collection in Duisburg, Germany (1999). Their most recognized buildings include Prada Aoyama in Tokyo, Japan (2003); Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany (2005); the new Cottbus Library for the BTU Cottbus, Germany (2005); the National Stadium Beijing, the Main Stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China; VitraHaus, a building to present Vitra’s “Home Collection“, Weil am Rhein, Germany (2010); and 1111 Lincoln Road, a multi-storey mixed-use structure for parking, retail, a restaurant and a private residence in Miami Beach, Florida, USA (2010), the Actelion Business Center in Allschwil/Basel, Switzerland (2010). In recent years, Herzog & de Meuron have also completed projects such as the New Hall for Messe Basel Switzerland (2013), the Ricola Kräuterzentrum in Laufen (2014), which is the seventh building in a series of collaborations with Ricola, with whom Herzog & de Meuron began to work in the 1980s; and the Naturbad Riehen (2014), a public natural swimming pool. In April 2014, the practice completed its first project in Brazil: the Arena do Morro in the neighbourhood of Mãe Luiza, Natal, is the pioneering project within the wider urban proposal “A Vision for Mãe Luiza”.

Herzog & de Meuron have completed 6 projects since the beginning of 2015: a new mountain station including a restaurant on top of the Chäserrugg (2262 metres above sea level) in Toggenburg, Switzerland; Helsinki Dreispitz, a residential development and archive in Münchenstein/Basel, Switzerland; Asklepios 8 – an office building on the Novartis Campus in Basel, Switzerland; the Slow Food Pavilion for Expo 2015 in Milan, Italy; the new Bordeaux stadium, a 42’000 seat multifunctional stadium for Bordeaux, France; Miu Miu Aoyama, a 720 m² boutique for the Prada-owned brand located on Miyuki Street, across the road from Prada Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan.

In many projects the architects have worked together with artists, an eminent example of that practice being the collaboration with Rémy Zaugg, Thomas Ruff and with Michael Craig-Martin.

Professionally, the Herzog & de Meuron partnership has grown to become an office with over 120 people worldwide. In addition to their headquarters in Basel, they have offices in London, Munich and San Francisco. Herzog has explained, “We work in teams, but the teams are not permanent. We rearrange them as new projects begin. All of the work results from discussions between Pierre and me, as well as our other partners, Harry Gugger and Christine Binswanger. The work by various teams may involve many different talents to achieve the best results which is a final product called architecture by Herzog & de Meuron.”

Read more
Published on: July 20, 2014
Cite: "AstraZeneca reveals the headquarters on Cambridge by Herzog & de Meuron" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/astrazeneca-reveals-headquarters-cambridge-herzog-de-meuron> ISSN 1139-6415
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...