Associate Ross McWatt recently joined Future Cities Forum to discuss ‘Knowledge Cities’ at Tower Hamlets Town Hall in Whitechapel. Together, public and private sector leaders discussed the potential for new life sciences and technology districts in East London and how they can contribute to quality of place while creating opportunities for education and economic growth.

Having led a number of high profile life science projects in and around Cambridge, Ross spoke about how we can repurpose existing inner city buildings for life science expansion, using recently approved plans to redevelop retail at 2-14 Fitzroy Street in Cambridge into laboratories as an example.

“I think town centres can absorb life science labs and offices. It can be difficult to shoe-horn science into existing buildings so the type of building has to be considered…they have to be fairly strong in terms of structure to cope with vibration. In the centre of Cambridge, retail is falling empty whereas life sciences are in high demand.”

Ross also touched upon plans for Cambridge International Technology Park – an exemplar new science hub which will help to strengthen the Cambridge-London corridor and reinforce the region’s status as a world leading centre for research and development. Ross explained how a hybrid design approach can ensure the buildings are flexible enough to suit a range of end user needs.

Find out more about the discussion here.