Hotel and Multi Storey Cycle Park Two The Square, Station Square, Cambridge

Hotel and Multi Storey Cycle Park Two The Square, Station Square, Cambridge

Introduction Completed in 2016 for Brookgate, this project in Cambridge is the first of its kind in the UK; a building which houses not only a 231 room Ibis hotel and retail space, but also a multi-storey cycle park which is ten times larger than any other cycle park facility in the UK, providing stands for 2,850 bicycles. As an exemplar building, it sets a precedent for other towns and cities aiming to encourage cycle use as part of their strategic plans to improve the urban environment and transport facilities in general. West Elevation

Formation Architects design is a great solution to an unusual brief, successfully managing to integrate a multi-storey cycle park and hotel into one building. The building has provided Cambridge with not only a really useful facility, but also one that has an architectural presence in this newly regenerated area. Sven Topel, Brookgate

The area around Cambridge railway station is currently undergoing a programme of redevelopment following a masterplan, called the CB1 masterplan, designed by Rogers Stirk and Harbour. The new Station Square directly in front of the station forms the centerpiece of this masterplan. It is designed to provide a proper gateway to the city, and to rationalize and facilitate all the different forms of traffic to and from the station. As a significant tourist destination, and a growing business and technology centre, Cambridge has a need for hotels to cater for a transient population. Coupled with the fact that everyday large numbers of commuters arrive at and leave the city from the station where they pick up or leave their bicycles, it was clear that this masterplan should make provision for all these needs.

Site Location The new Hotel and Multi Storey Cycle Park building is located immediately adjacent to the Grade 2 listed Cambridge Station and forms the northern enclosure of this new Station Square. This location allows cyclists easy access to and from the station, and the hotel is convenient for those visitors arriving by train to Cambridge. Formation Architects has been granted planning permission for two further buildingsto be located on Station Square; Three and Four The Square will provide retail space at ground floor level with residential units above.

Station Road Four The Square Three The Square Station Square Multi-storey cycle park Cambridge Railway Station Platform Site Plan Tracks N

Planning Originally, the CB1 masterplan envisaged a multi-storey car park and a narrow office building with retail on the ground floor fronting the square on this site. A hotel was to be located opposite the station on the west side of Station Square. However, it was decided that the proposed hotel was not large enough for the most prominent position on the square. It was agreed with Cambridge City Planning Department that the site on the masterplan adjacent to the station was better suited and, as a planning gain, a significant amount of cycle parking should be provided as part of the development. The fusion of these uses into one building would solve the problem of multiple bicycles obstructing the main square and the station entrance. Following meetings with the planning department and the Cambridge City Council Design and Conservation Panel over the course of a year, planning permission was granted for the building in 2014.

View of Square front

Design Concept Formation Architects challenge was to integrate the cycle park, hotel and retail space into a coherent, singular building, which addressed the new Station Square and responded sensitively to the neighbouring listed station building. The height and footprint of the new building were determined by the parameter plans of the consented CB1 masterplan. The entrance to the hotel, retail units and the pedestrian entrance to the cycle park are located on Station Square to offer an active, busy ground floor towards the public space of the square. The restaurant of the hotel overlooks Station Square from the first floor. Cyclists enter the building from the quieter Northern Access Road to park their bicycles on one of three floors accessed by a large ramp. Secure, lit, covered storage is provided for 2,850 bicycles on conventional and double-stacker stands. A cycle hire and repair shop is located on the ground floor, providing a useful service for cyclists. Above the cycle park are the hotel bedrooms in a U-shaped plan forming an internal courtyard on the second to fifth floor. Cyclists can exit and enter the building via a wide staircase onto Station Square.

Double stack cycle stands Cycle Ramp

Cycle Park Entrance Hotel Reception and Cafe Cycle Shop Ramp Retail Unit 03 49 sqm (527 sqft) Retail Unit 01 445 sqm Cycle Park Access to Pedestrian Cycle Park Entrance Ground Floor Plan Cycle Park Ramp Second Floor Plan

Hotel Restaurant Ramp Hotel Restaurant Cycle Park Cycle Park entrance Pedestrian Access First Floor Plan Green Roof Typical Floor Plan

Facades and Materials The main façade fronts onto Station Square. Its corners are recessed to create a wellproportioned central section and a subtle transition of scale to the northern wing of the station building. The use of reconstituted stone at ground and first floor gives the building a solid base. Its flat arches link the building in scale to the colonnaded façade of the station, and further define the vertical hierarchy of the elevation. Glass bay windows are recessed between these double height arches, and reflect the public spaces of the hotel behind. A pale, buff brick is used on the upper four floors, which references the gault brick of the station and to the Cambridge vernacular in general. Green enameled lava stone panels by the side of the windows emphasise the vertical proportions, complement the gault brick and echo the leaves of the trees on the square. Grey panels, denote the regularly spaced bedrooms of the hotel. The cycle park is outwardly expressed on the building façade by double storey perforated metal panels on the first and second floors, set between brick pillars which also serve to define the regular spacing of the hotel rooms above. These panels provide wind and rain protection for the cycle park and reflect the use of the space through an abstracted cycle related motif applied onto them.

Detail of hotel facade Detail of cycle park facade

Artwork As part of a wider public art initiative in Cambridge, Troika, a Hackney-based artist collaborative, were commissioned to create a light installation in the Cycle Park. The work, called Continental Drift, has been placed over the public stairway that leads to and from the Cycle Park. It consists of a rotating faceted globe that projects a map of over 10m onto the ceiling of the stairway. The map continuously shifts, stretches and rearranges itself as the globe rotates, a map in which landmass is neither static nor organized in an established cartographic format. Stairway & Artwork

List of Project Collaborators Client: Brookgate Ltd Local Authority: Cambridge City Council Architect: Formation Architects Contractor: Galliford Try Structural Engineers: Mott MacDonald M&E Engineers: Hilson Moran Landscape Architects: Robert Myers Associates Planning Consultants: Bidwells Public Art Installation: Troika Site Area: 0.3ha Building Area: 10,859sqm (116,842sqft) Cycle Park GIA: 3,702sqm (39,848sqft) Hotel GIA: 6,398sqm (68,867sqft) No. of Bedrooms: 231 Hotel Rating: 3* Cost: circa 15m

Formation Architects Winchester House 1-3 Brixton Road London SW9 6DE Formation Architects 2017 t: 020 7251 0781 www.formationarchitects.co.uk