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CGI showing how the campus would look when built

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Plans by Hawkins Brown for a £100m life sciences scheme in Cambridge are set to be approved tomorrow evening.

The Coldhams Lane masterplan would consist of nine office buildings spanning a 24ha site south of Cambridge City Airport.

A hybrid application seeking detailed consent for the first three of the proposed buildings has been recommended for approval by council planning officers ahead of a planning committee meeting on Thursday. The remaining six buildings would receive outline consent if the application is approved.

Designed for commercial developer Mission Street, it would provide a total of 90,000 sq m of research and development workspace in buidlings ranging from two to eight storeys in height.

It would also contain a 27,000 sq m transport hub and an 880 sq m cafe and corporate event space at the centre of the campus called ‘The Mixer’.

Hawkins Brown said the design of the latter, which features a tall timber structure on its roof, has been inspired by historic agricultural and industrial buildings of the Cambridgeshire Fenlands.

The site is currently undeveloped, split either side of a railway line between a 9.51ha former landfill plot and a pair of artificial lakes covering around 15ha.

Most of the new buildings would be located on the former landfill site, with the lakes reserved for recreational uses.

Planning officers said the proposals would bring “local, regional and national benefits” by providing new employment and community space while minimising environmental impacts on the landscape.

The project team also includes CB3 Consulting on costs, 3PM as project manager, Buro Happold on MEP, Stantec on planning, Ramboll on structural and civil engineering, Bidwells as visual impact consultant, landscape architect Periscope and Element Four on sustainability.