Part Two of Future Cities Forum’s 'Science Cities' report includes the research findings of our workshop on best practice for life science campus design, run by Scott Brownrigg Director Ed Hayden at Future Cities Forum’s 'Science Cities' event earlier this month.

We have a legacy of Science Parks which have been developed over the last 30 years. These are generally organised around the car as a primary transport system, with single buildings surrounded by surface car-parking connected to an estate road.

Ed asked six teams, which included developer, planning, and engineering experts to consider how we reimagine this legacy and address sustainability and carbon, people and culture, and transport and infrastructure in science parks as we head towards 2050.

The general consensus was a need to future proofing buildings within science parks – from reusing and upgrading what’s there already, to creating flexible spaces that can adapt to end user needs to ensure long term relevance of these parks. A number of teams talked about the importance of well-connected parks with links to nearby housing and town centres in order to attract a diverse workforce. Others spoke of introducing social amenities onsite to create a vibrant mixed-use environment that both staff and the wider community can benefit from.

 ‘In terms of people and culture, it needs to be about diverse communities, the meeting of minds, as the success of these science parks will be about collaboration so there must be a reason for being there beyond 9 to 5 with facilities to meet up. These must work for all age groups and it’s about the collaboration between these. - Eimear Meredith Jones, Deloitte speaking for a team which included Wellcome Genome Campus, Hertfordshire LEP, Stantec and Mills & Reeve.

Biodiversity and the need to either rely on, or self-generate renewable energy were also discussed, alongside the need to make provision for green transport and micro-mobility.

Read Future Cities Forum’s 'Science Cities' report in full here.