Fusion Partitions worked closely on the design and delivery of this stunning project with GTA Interior for PA Consulting in Cambridge. Utilising Frequency 100 Double glazing, Contempo Double glazed glide doors and Contempo Double glazed pivoting doors.
Budget: undisclosed
Size: 14,000 sqft interior, 20 acres exterior
Duration: 60 weeks
GTA recently completed the architectural transformation of PA’s Global Innovation and Technology Centre (GITC), in Cambridge, UK. Originally designed by architects Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano in 1975, the 10,000-square-meter facility is a signature building with inside-out services and engineering.
The GITC is the heart of PA’s international network of creative studios, research labs and engineering centres. The visitor experience is of upmost importance to the centre and at the core of GTA’s project brief.
PA Consulting is an innovation and transformation consultancy who believe in the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future. From medical devices to manufacturing equipment, from consumer products to digital experiences, the GITC is where PA creates, prototypes, tests, and builds many of the technology-based solutions to their clients’ most important challenges.
PA Consulting first appointed an architect for feasibility design of the new entrance. GTA took the project reins thereafter with an expanded scope. GTA refined options that were buildable, gained planning permission and a programme strategy allowing PA to remain in occupation throughout the whole construction period.
GTA carefully selected a team of Mechanical, Electrical, Structural, and Civil Engineers with specialist expertise suited to the project requirements. Together with GTA’s in-house Interior Architects, Commercial Construction and Project Managers, and Site Managers, they designed and delivered the refurbishment of the GITC visitor area—a facility that transforms the visitor experience and aligns with PA’s innovative business approach.
The project scope includes extending the building entrance, introducing a new building lobby, and creating an atrium. The extension is topped with a solid white floating canopy, providing an impressive, sheltered visitor drop-off and a deserving sense of arrival.
GTA re-planned the building approach by carving a new roadway that leads directly to the entrance doors and a new pedestrian route from the visitor car park. The external landscaping includes tiered gabion walls, new paving, pedestrian steps, and a tarmac roadway that defines the building approach. Striking external lighting illuminates the roadway, landscaping, and pedestrian routes. The lighting wash on the canopy contributes to the floating illusion of the structure.
As part of the phased building works, major upgrades were made to the mechanical systems and external plant. A raised floor was added for enhanced electrical installation and flexibility and the joinery walls utilised service voids to serve fresh air.