Anglian Demolition helps transform offices for state-of-the-art CamLIFE project

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