PA Consulting, Cambridge

HOP provided Structural and Civil Engineering Design advice for this refurbishment project at PA’s Global Innovation and Technology Centre (GITC), in Cambridge, UK. Originally designed by Architects Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano in 1975, the 10,000-square-meter facility is a signature building with inside-out services and engineering.

The GITC is the heart of PA’s international network of creative studios, research labs and engineering centres. The visitor experience is of upmost importance to the centre and at the core of GTA’s project brief.

PA Consulting is an innovation and transformation consultancy who believe in the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future. From medical devices to manufacturing equipment, from consumer products to digital experiences, the GITC is where PA creates, prototypes, tests, and builds many of the technology-based solutions to their clients’ most important challenges.

PA Consulting first appointed an architect for feasibility design of the new entrance. GTA took the project reins thereafter with an expanded scope. GTA refined options that were buildable, gained planning permission and a programme strategy allowing PA to remain in occupation throughout the whole construction period.

The project scope includes extending the building entrance, introducing a new building lobby, and creating an atrium. The extension is topped with a solid white floating canopy, providing an impressive, sheltered visitor drop-off and a deserving sense of arrival.

HOP and GTA re-planned the building approach by carving a new roadway that leads directly to the entrance doors and a new pedestrian route from the visitor car park. The external landscaping includes tiered gabion walls, new paving, pedestrian steps, and a tarmac roadway that defines the building approach. Striking external lighting illuminates the roadway, landscaping, and pedestrian routes. The lighting wash on the canopy contributes to the floating illusion of the structure.

Photography:  Philip Vile – www.philipvile.com

If you are interested in having a closer look at the works please click here: PA Cambridge drone flythrough