New images of how Guildhall and Corn Exchange could look as architects discuss Cambridge civic quarter ‘challenge’

New images of how the Guildhall and Corn Exchange in Cambridge could look in future have been revealed as the lead architects on the civic quarter project described it as a “complex challenge.”

Pledging to “enhance the city’s historic character” while introducing “modern amenities”, they described it an “incredibly exciting opportunity” and “great responsibility” to redesign the heart of Cambridge.

The civic quarter project was launched by Cambridge City Council to “revitalise” the city centre, including the market square, the Corn Exchange, the Guildhall and the surrounding public spaces.

The council wants to modernise and improve the energy efficiency of the Guildhall, and to open it up more to the public, as well as creating new office spaces that can be rented out to generate income for the authority.

At the Corn Exchange, the council intends to increase the venue’s capacity, as well as improving the foyer and making it a more sustainable building.

In the market square, the council aims to resurface the area to make it more accessible and remove the existing stalls, replacing them with a mixture of permanent and demountable stalls.

It is estimated that it will cost £55million to complete the planned improvement work to the Guildhall, and the first phases of work to the market square and the Corn Exchange.

Cartwright Pickard is the lead architecture firm for the designs.

David Roberts, a director at Cartwright and Pickard, said it was an “incredibly exciting opportunity”.

“It is a really exciting thing to be doing, I would say it is every architect’s dream to work on buildings such as the Guildhall and the Corn Exchange, they are steeped in history and are integral to the culture of the city,” he said.

“That said, it comes with great responsibility and it is a complex challenge. There are lots of complex challenges and lots of pieces to the puzzle that we as architects need to put together.

“We are really committed to untangling those head-on, to create a vibrant, sustainable, accessible and inclusive civic focal point, which blends Cambridge’s rich heritage, with innovative design principles.

“Really our main goal is to enhance the city’s historic character, while introducing those modern amenities that serve both residents and visitors to Cambridge.”

David explained how they plan to bring more natural light into the Guildhall by enhancing existing light wells and aim to combine the historic aspects of the building with modern improvements.

He said: “One of the things that is at the moment quite uninviting about the Guildhall is that there are later additions that have been added to that ground floor reception area, and they are quite unsympathetic.

“Our proposals remove those unsympathetic additions and get back to the grandeur of that space as it was designed in the 1930s.

“That will then allow us to insert a new feature staircase in that atrium to get down to the basement level, and those changes allow us to open up the basement for use by the council.”

David said this would help them “unlock the latent potential of the Guildhall” and open up spaces not currently used on a daily basis.

By “significantly” increasing the amount of usable space, more areas could be rented out as offices.

“That then feeds into one of the other key council aims, which is greater generation of revenue from the Guildhall, to in essence bring funds into the council that they can then reduce their running costs of the building and feed that money back into frontline services.”

Another aim is to make the Guildhall net zero carbon in operation - something David described as “challenging” but “absolutely the right thing to be doing”.

He said: “We will be upgrading the insulation in floors, in roofs. We are adding triple glazed secondary glazing to the windows, to in essence create a building that uses very little energy.

“At the same time we are going to be replacing old outdated services. At the moment in the basement there is the plant room that has a history of how the building has been heated over time. There is an old coal boiler, and you can see where the coal used to come in, there is an oil boiler and there are the current gas boilers.

“We are removing gas and fossil fuel usage from the site, so it will be an all-electric building and we are going to utilise air source heat pumps and maximise the number of solar panels on roofs to generate electricity.

“All of that work being done to get to net zero in operation obviously has the added benefit of driving down energy use and therefore driving down the council’s running costs.

“That coupled with the financial returns of the commercial office space means that the proposals will generate a net saving of around £1m a year.

“That £1m can be saved and the council can use that for more pressing things.

“I feel that is a really positive message for the project. It may well be spending money now, but the long-term savings are very obvious.”

At the Corn Exchange, the architects want to “expose more of the heritage” of the building, including some of the “amazing brickwork” previously closed off.

It is hoped work to open up the foyer will “really show off that heritage” to visitors.

In the market square, David explained that the resurfacing planned will reuse the listed granite setts.

He said: “We are going to have to work closely with the conservation officer, with Historic England, to reuse those setts, but we need to reuse them in a way that makes the market a place that everyone can go and enjoy.

“At the moment the problem is it is inaccessible to non-abled bodied people, even for parents with pushchairs it is very difficult. Heaven forbid someone in a wheelchair trying to access the market square. It is just not feasible, so we want to make that an inclusive and accessible space that all residents of Cambridge and any visitors can use and enjoy the market.”

The project will look at improving the spaces around the market, Guildhall and the Corn Exchange.

“We are looking at all of that public realm to really improve it,” said David. “It is dominated by cars, especially behind the Guildhall and the Corn Exchange, and we are trying to make this a place for people, be they walking or wheeling.”

The intention is to create “a beautiful civic heart to the city with high quality public realm”.

There will be further consultation on the project in May, when people will have another chance to share their views on the developing plans.

David said as architects, Cartwright Pickard is “really keen to listen” to people’s views and to try and incorporate them where they can into the designs.

The civic quarter project has encountered controversy, with Green Party councillors at a city council meeting on 24 February arguing the project should be shelved in light of plans to scrap the city council as part of the government’s shake-up of local authority structures.

A unitary authority or authorities would take over responsibility for all council services in Cambridgeshire from 2028, replacing the existing two tier structure of city/district and county councils, under the government’s devolution proposals.

Cllr Naomi Bennett (Green, Abbey), the leader of the Greens on the council, told the meeting: “If the decision is to press ahead with plans for the Guildhall, it is likely that those plans will become obsolete almost as soon as they are completed and the millions of pounds spent on consultants will be wasted.

“Blindly pushing on with this passion project will not only alienate future working partners by showing a less than open attitude to future co-operative working, it also reduces the confidence of the public that their funds will be spent wisely.”

But Labour councillors in charge of the city council pointed out that without decarbonisation and upgrades, the Guildhall would be a “stranded asset” and no use to any future authority, while the wider project had benefits well beyond the council’s headquarters.

Meanwhile, market traders have expressed alarm at plans to remove two-thirds of the permanent stalls removed to create a flexible entertainment area. There would be 27 permanent stalls beneath a canopy and up to 61 temporary gazebos available to other traders under the proposals, which traders fear will threaten the viability of the market.

An 1,800-signature petition opposing the proposals was presented by traders and the Friends of Cambridge Market at February’s meeting, calling for 54 permanent stalls to be retained. The council has said design work is ongoing and Cllr Simon Smith (Lab, Castle) told the meeting: “We’re not intending to kill this marke. Far from it. We want to breathe fresh life into it.”