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Tell us about Perkins&Will's approach to designing 10 Station Road.

At Perkins&Will, sustainability isn’t a box-ticking exercise - it’s the backbone of our Living Design framework, our studio-wide commitment to shaping places that are healthy, resilient, future-proof, and genuinely regenerative.

10 Station Road expresses that ethos in full. With a BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ rating (top 1% of UK non-domestic buildings), a 4.5 star NABERS rating for Design and Performance (a Cambridge first), and WELL Core Gold certification, the building demonstrates what happens when design ambition is matched with deep technical rigour.

Rather than treating certifications as parallel tasks, our multidisciplinary team - architects, sustainability experts, interior designers, and building scientists - used NABERS, BREEAM and WELL as a single integrated framework. Each informed the other. The goal was simple: prove that high-performance standards can elevate design, not dilute it.

We approached the brief with conceptual clarity: every design move needed to have a purpose. Innovation wasn’t a “nice to have” - it was essential to show what the next generation of workplace could be, and how a commercial building could start giving more than it takes.

How has the design responded to the changing expectations of workspace tenants?

Location plays a major role - the building is a four-minute walk from Cambridge Station, supporting sustainable, low-carbon commuting. For an increasingly informed and environmentally aware workforce, that matters.

But the real differentiator is its holistic approach to wellbeing - a direct expression of Living Design. We looked at the workplace as an ecosystem:

• light, air, landscape and materials
• movement, social connection and choice
• operational efficiency and long-term adaptability

The result is a building that supports people as much as it supports business - a workplace that is calm, flexible, human, and genuinely healthy.

What design features promote wellbeing, productivity, and a best-in-class workplace experience?

At its core, 10 Station Road is designed as a healthy building, not just one that meets the bar on paper. In a post-COVID world, people expect more from their workplace - and this building responds by creating an environment that is both safe and socially rich, both high-performing and uplifting.

This includes

• A non-traditional core layout - We broke away from the typical centre-core model. By shifting the core, we avoided the disconnected loops often found in smaller offices and instead created open, continuous, sociable floorplates. The result: better sightlines, more collaboration, and a stronger sense of community.
• Generous volumes and full-height glazing - Floor-to-floor heights and full-height glass bring in abundant daylight and panoramic views - grounding every workspace in natural light and giving people a visual connection to Cambridge, from college rooftops to the botanical gardens.
• Fresh air and access to nature - Operable windows on all façades and a landscaped perimeter terrace provide fresh air and outdoor space at every level. These moves directly support biophilia, a core Living Design principle.
• Active travel and healthy movement - Exceptional end-of-trip facilities - secure cycle storage, showers, changing rooms, drying rooms, and lockers - not only exceed BREEAM standards, they promote healthy daily routines.
• A new pocket park - Adjacent to the building, it offers a quiet green moment in the city and increases the building’s visible greenery - improving outlooks and wellbeing for occupants on every floor.

Together, these elements create a workplace that is best-in-class not because it is high-tech, but because it is deeply human.

10 Station Road shows how Living Design, multidisciplinary thinking, and a regenerative mindset can reshape the future of workplace architecture - in Cambridge and beyond.