Updated plans submitted by Google for its £1 billion “groundscraper” headquarter building in Kings Cross show that it will have 250 metres of shop fronts and a community events space. Lendlease is main contractor of the huge one million sq ft building. — designed by Thomas Heatherwick and Danish architects
BBV adopts drone software from Esri UK to digitise survey workflows, reduce costs and enhance safety on its 90km stretch of HS2 Esri UK today announced that Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV) has rolled out its Site Scan for ArcGIS drone flight management and image processing software, to support its drone
Work has started on the first wholly speculative development of new multi-let laboratory and office space at Cambridge Biomedical Campus, which is specifically targeting a range of growing biotech and life science businesses. Situated on the southern edge of the campus, the new 103,000 sq ft five-storey building at 1000
Updated plans submitted by Google for its £1 billion “groundscraper” headquarter building in Kings Cross show that it will have 250 metres of shop fronts and a community events space. Lendlease is main contractor of the huge one million sq ft building. — designed by Thomas Heatherwick and Danish architects BIG — is now well advanced ahead of topping out later this year, with completion expected by 2024. However, there has been little detail surrounding what it will look like at ground floor level — until now. New detailed designs submitted this week with Camden council reveal a long parade of retail units “with a mix of established and growing brands” as well as a “market hall” for small businesses and “a community, education and event space that will host a changing programme of events all year round. This will be the first wholly-owned and designed Google building outside of the US and will comprise a staggering one million square feet of space spread out over an 11-story building. To put it into context, Google’s building will be longer than the Shard is tall. As well as office space for up to 4,000 Google employees to work, the area will also feature a pool, games area, gym, landscaped roof garden and a parade of retail space for shops and other businesses to occupy. The new building is being developed from the ground up and will contribute to the Knowledge Quarter and King’s Cross’s growing knowledge-based economy. The tech giant says that, when finished, the area ‘will be a resource not just for Googlers but Londoners, too.’
BBV adopts drone software from Esri UK to digitise survey workflows, reduce costs and enhance safety on its 90km stretch of HS2 Esri UK today announced that Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV) has rolled out its Site Scan for ArcGIS drone flight management and image processing software, to support its drone deployment strategy on its Midlands section of HS2. Faster and more efficient drone surveys are already saving around £20,000 a year on monthly construction progress surveys on a single site, instead of using physical surveys and the subsequent updating of CAD models. BBV estimates this could save around £1.6m if the same workflow was applied across 80 sites in the first year. Another benefit has been the removal of 800 ‘working at risk’ days and a cost saving of £30,000 per year from monitoring aggregate stockpiles, using a single drone operator to carry out 3D volumetric measurements in 20 minutes. Previously, contractors would take a full day to physically measure stockpiles and calculate transport requirements, often working in steep and difficult environments. Site Scan for ArcGIS is being used to carry out drone site surveys, manage aggregate stockpiles and monitor progress of construction. Various 2D and 3D outputs are being generated for sharing with multiple stakeholders, including high-definition imagery and 3D terrain models. The new software was rolled out across the BBV business to almost 400 users in autumn 2021, including 13 drone pilots. The major civil infrastructure project spans from Long Itchington Wood tunnel in the south to the West Coast Main Line tie-in near Lichfield in the north, with a major junction into Curzon Street Station in central Birmingham. The main works civil engineering contracts will deliver earthworks, ground engineering and many structures including bridges, viaducts and tunnels along a 90km stretch of the UK’s new high speed rail line. “We needed the right software to manage an increasingly complex and varied use of drones and meet the needs of multiple teams, from logistics to site managers to engineers,” explained Dan Fawcett, Innovation Director at Balfour Beatty VINCI. “New digitised workflows are rapidly replacing traditional, physical working practices and introducing new levels of efficiency, accuracy and safety. On major projects such as HS2, the ROI achieved is significant.” Other applications of the new software include helping to show compliance with design tolerances in built structures against BIM and CAD models, speeding-up design cycles, particularly in earthworks and excavations design and monitoring the installation of utilities. Site Scan supports RTK drones to ensure highly accurate data capture and point cloud creation. Super-user training for Site Scan is being provided by Esri UK partner Heliguy, the drone consultancy, hardware and training specialists. Site Scan for ArcGIS is Esri’s cloud-based drone flight management and image processing software, offering flight planning, hardware management, scalable image processing and unlimited data storage, plus seamless integration with BBV’s Esri enterprise GIS system.
Work has started on the first wholly speculative development of new multi-let laboratory and office space at Cambridge Biomedical Campus, which is specifically targeting a range of growing biotech and life science businesses. Situated on the southern edge of the campus, the new 103,000 sq ft five-storey building at 1000 Discovery Drive will form part of the very definition of an expanding ecosystem of clinical, academic, and commercial excellence. Since announcing plans to develop the building in October last year, Prologis UK has received numerous expressions of interest in the new development from biotech and life science businesses, providing flexibility to meet start-up, spin-out and scale-up options for healthcare research facilities. Andrew Blevins, Head of Life Sciences at Prologis UK, said: “Opportunities to lease life sciences property of this calibre that allows established and up and coming research-led businesses to, quite literally, brush shoulders with big pharma, leading academics, research scientists and experts in clinical medicine, is unprecedented in this country. We already have a strong pipeline of customer interest and are expecting more to come.” Designed with flexibility in mind, the new building will provide laboratory and office space in a variety of sizes and specifications, ranging from open plan to laboratory and office space equipped. The opportunity to be part of an established, vibrant, life science ecosystem is likely to be the main draw for organisations choosing to locate at Cambridge Biomedical Centre. As well as being co-located with the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, the campus is home to world leading hospitals such as Addenbrookes and Royal Papworth as well as facilities for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust. Prospective tenants will be based with the nation’s leading scientific minds in reach, as the campus also includes other leaders in healthcare innovation and discovery such as the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, colloquially known as the “Nobel Prize factory”, Cancer Research UK’s Cambridge Institute and the corporate and research headquarters for AstraZeneca and Abcam. The new building will deliver important amenities for the wider campus and community, including a café and open-source community centre, where businesses, visitors and scientists can come together to share ideas, collaborate or simply meet. Set within the wider context of the surrounding community, the aim is to create a building that is socially inviting and explorable. The welcoming design also forms part of the emerging Cambridge Biomedical Campus’ 2050 Vision, which is focused on improving connectivity with the surrounding community in Cambridge and encouraging local people to visit the site and enjoy its green spaces. Kristin-Anne Rutter, Executive Director of Cambridge University Health Partners adds: “In Cambridge, our mission is simple – to improve lives by bringing together the academic and foundational institutions, the NHS and industry to improve health through breakthrough discoveries that are rapidly tested and scaled to deliver benefit to the world. To facilitate this we need to create the spaces where people can serendipitously meet and purposively come together to collaborate to develop ideas particularly around the prevention and early diagnosis of diseases and how we tackle global health inequality. 1000 Discovery Drive will be an important part of this process on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. It will offer future tenants not just the best facilities but encourage people to talk, listen and work together in a place which is already home to over 20,000 people dedicated to making a difference.” Such is the level of interest in the new building that Prologis has already begun the design for multiple follow-on buildings for both speculative and pre-let development. Andrew Blevins, Head of Life Sciences at Prologis UK, added: “There is intrinsic value in creating a space where the brightest academic, business, and clinical minds converge to build an ecosystem, sharing not only space and infrastructure but new ideas and intellect. The value of this has already been demonstrated by the successful expansion of the campus to date, but there is much more to come.” To further support the development within the region, Prologis UK has committed £1.65 million to support public arts and community activities at Cambridge Biomedical Campus, one of the largest investments of its kind in the Cambridge area to date. Most recently, the campus hosted an open-air artwork by Luke Jarrom, In Memoriam, constructed out of 120 flags made from NHS bed sheets.
