Attleborough-based demolition company Anglian, has undertaken a redevelopment project to help transform existing office buildings in Cambridge into a state-of-the-art 42-acre parkland science campus. The project has created premises which have reduced carbon emissions by 40% compared to a new build.
The three-month project at CamLIFE (Cambridge Lab and Innovation Focused Environment) in the location formerly known as Capital Park, was undertaken for Longfellow Real Estate Partners – the largest privately held investor and developer of life science buildings in the US. Anglian acted as main contractor for building and property maintenance firm Wates.
Employing a team of 30, Anglian carried out works including partial demolition, internal demolition, alterations and soft strip within three office buildings which were built in 2013. Once fully complete, CamLIFE will deliver approximately 170,000 square feet of best-in-class fitted lab and office space.
The aim of the redevelopment project was to utilise the existing properties and follow an adaptive redesign approach to achieve the lowest environmental impact. This has resulted in a 40% whole-life embodied carbon reduction compared to a new-build net-zero equivalent. With a long-standing commitment to sustainable development, Longfellow is targeting BREEAM Excellent and EPC A during this project.
With many different materials within the buildings which all needed to be removed, Anglian utilised its expertise to complete each stage of the demolition process. This included carefully removing large panes of glass and metal spiral staircases, as well as saving 3000 bricks to be reused in the next construction phase.
As with every Anglian demolition job, all waste created was transported back to Anglian’s 10-acre facility in Attleborough to be processed. As much material as possible was reclaimed for recycling or looped back into the circular economy, including 87 tonnes of metal, seven tonnes of glass and 11.5 tonnes of rubble.
Andy Elvin, senior contracts manager at Anglian Demolition & Asbestos, said: “We were delighted to undertake this latest project for Wates on behalf of Longfellow. This was a significant project for us which utilised the many skills we have within the team here at Anglian. As a business, we are committed to reducing the impact of demolition jobs on the environment by segregating and processing our waste as standard. This approach complemented perfectly the aims of Longfellow to create state-of-the-art premises with minimal environmental impact and the highest standards.”
Established in 2007, Anglian Demolition & Asbestos is East Anglia’s leading multi-service contractor. Its specialist divisions include Demolition, Waste Recycling, Asbestos Surveys and Removal, Scaffolding, and Earthworks and Remediation. To find out more, see