Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

If you asked most children who go to school in Cambridge to draw a crown, it wouldn’t look like what this part of the construction industry is proposing for 4000 Discovery Drive The design is ***so awful*** that even the BBC refrained from including the CGI visualisations – presumably because it might give people nightmares.Continue reading “Cambridge Biomedical Campus developer unveils ‘crown’ design that would please a cartoon villain”

The problem is that there’s nowhere for the wastewater to be pumped to – the proposed destination of the relocated Honey Hill Wastewater Plant having been pulled by HM Treasury (And that’s on top of Anglian Water’s reservoir issues) The planning documents for this are in the GCSP Planning Portal here, and the reference toContinue reading “Anglian Water propose new Waterbeach wastewater pumping station”

Ministers want your views on their new draft guidance. How many of our recent developments meet their standards? (Actually, don’t answer that!!!) Because back in 2021 Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner launched a scathing attack on the poor build quality of too many homes built in Cambridge at the time How do some of the recentContinue reading “NEW CONSULTATION: Design and place-making.”

Bringing in such processes would probably require a change in the law – and a huge culture change in the architecture profession and the construction industry more generally. But they could result in a significant improvement in our built environment so far as human and environmental health are concerned This post by Dr Amalia VerzolaContinue reading “Emotional Mapping, Participatory Architecture, and the Future of Cambridge”

TL/DR? We’re doomed – give up now. Or is there hope we can turn things around? Nature security assessment on global biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and national security It’s also worth seeing these in the context of the wider UK National Risk Register produced by the Government which indicates what the state has made preparationsContinue reading “Global biodiversity loss and the collapse of critical ecosystems – UK Government assessment”

Robert A.M. Stern was one of the partners that built new residential colleges at Yale in the mid-late 2010s. They were striking not least for taking their inspiration from existing pre-20thC buildings. Image – Yale Residential Colleges RAMSA How do you take on a challenge that involves designing 1.4miles of building fronts? That’s what theContinue reading “What would new Cambridge buildings be like if they followed a process used at Yale?”

Or rather, how do the documents contained within read today? Mindful that the original application was submitted to the city council way back in 2006 You can still find them today – go to https://applications.greatercambridgeplanning.org/online-applications/ and type in the reference 06/0796/OUT and all sorts of interesting things come out! Scroll to the earliest listing whichContinue reading “15 years after Cambridge City Council approved outline planning permission for the biomedical campus, how does it read today?”

Have your say on what they are proposing – noting their documents on the travel plan and on public art See the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning application page and type in Ref: 26/00092/FUL into the simple search box. Above – the brown building on a beige background that could have been from a fashion showContinue reading “Astra Zeneca submits planning application for long-awaited conference centre”

Dr Stella Creasy MP explains succinctly what recent events over Greenland mean for the UK, and why the UK Political Establishment needs to completely rethink its approach to the EU in the contest of national security, not just on economics and trade. I try to avoid international politics these days because it depresses me, butContinue reading “‘We need to see the reset of the UK’s relationship with the EU as a national security issue’”

The very low turnout at Queen Edith’s Nightingale Pavilion earlier was disappointing, but perhaps inevitable in the face of a fragmented city with no widely-read/used single point of civic information sharing. Before I start, a quick reminder of the remaining public consultation events (and two of my own) in this post Part of the contextContinue reading “Do the public know there’s a public consultation on the future of Cambridge?”