Cambridge Design Partnership flying to Bourn Airfield scheme

Product design innovator Cambridge Design Partnership is shifting its flagship HQ from Toft in South Cambridgeshire to a nearby new development at Bourn Airfield.

CDP is the first tenant at the new Bourn Quarter Business Park which is being modelled on the hi-tech campus at Eindhoven in The Netherlands.

Planning permission has recently been granted for Bourn Quarter It will be on a site of over 10 hectares and is part of the wider redevelopment of Bourn Airfield, between Cambourne and Cambridge. There are also plans for substantial residential development at the site.

CDP will be doubling its office and lab space on moving in. It tells us that the  business is growing very rapidly and adds: “This is a great milestone for us.”

Eddisons acted on behalf of CDP, which has turned somersaults to continue operating at the cutting edge of global technology schemes despite what would appear to be a single, nagging complaint from a Toft near-neighbour about the company’s operating hours.

South Cambs District Council confirmed to Business Weekly that it had not taken any enforcement action against CDP despite the lone complaint. Business Weekly is working from Toft during the lockdown and confirms CDP has operated in an exemplary fashion – eliminating nuisance while it has executed important COVID-related innovations as well as other globally influential nextgen technologies.

CDP has negotiated deals with neighbouring schemes to accommodate staff car parking and has opened branch offices in the Cambridge Cluster to take some of the labour strain off the Toft HQ. It has even gone so far as opening a US base.

The Eddisons team working on the new Bourn project is led by directors Mark Critchley and David Park who are based at the firm’s Cambridge and Peterborough offices, respectively.

Critchley said: “The new hi-tech campus is the principal commercial element of the overall scheme that is centred on Bourn Airfield.

“It’s a real privilege to be working for CDP who, as the quarter’s anchor tenant, will have a top quality headquarters building in blazing the trail for other high profile occupiers.

“Cambridge’s pre-eminence in scientific and engineering fields is acknowledged globally and we are looking forward to playing our part in bringing forward another top calibre business park in the area.”

Construction will begin this year with CDP’s occupation of its new headquarters scheduled for summer 2022.