Cambridge City Council has granted planning permission for The Forum, a £120 million mixed-use medical and education facility on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. The Forum, designed by architects NBBJ, is the product of a joint-venture between John Laing and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUHT).
Comprising a postgraduate medical education centre, 900-delegate conference centre, 90-bed private hospital, and four-star hotel, it will bring together local, national, and international medical professionals, researchers, and academics, ‘all focused on the development of lifechanging treatments’. The scheme has been privately funded, but allows CUHT to retain freehold ownership of the site. NBBJ said: “A study of traditional Cambridge architecture provided the elements and materials to develop a building distinct from the others on the Biomedical Campus.” The building’s design has been developed in close association with the contractor, Laing O’Rourke, utilising its ‘Design for Manufacture and Assembly’ system, which will see the entire structure, mechanical and electrical system, and finishes, fabricated in a factory, and assembled on site.
