CamLIFE

Cambridge, United Kingdom

Lab Space, Reimagined for Cambridge’s Innovation Ecosystem

By repositioning three existing office buildings into adaptable lab and workspace, CamLIFE adds critical capacity to one of Europe’s leading life sciences clusters.

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170,000 Square Feet of Lab and Workspace Across Three Buildings
40% Reduction in Embodied Carbon Through Adaptive Reuse
Suites from 7,000 to 75,000 Square Feet
12-Week Occupancy Enabled by 80% Speculative Fit-Out
4–7 Tenants Per Building in a Flexible Multi-Tenant Model
BREEAM Excellent, EPC A, and WELL Gold-Enabled Targets
All-Electric, PV-Powered Design Supporting Net-Zero Readiness
Integrated Amenity Spaces
Set Within a 42-Acre Innovation Campus

Cambridge is one of Europe’s most important life sciences hubs, home to world-class universities, a deep talent pool, and a rapidly expanding ecosystem of start-ups and global biotech firms. But the region’s success has created its own constraint: demand for high-quality, flexible lab space far outpaces supply. Emerging companies in particular struggle to find space that can grow with them, limiting innovation within one of the U.K.'s most valuable research clusters.

Longfellow, a leading U.S. life sciences real estate developer, partnered with Gensler to deliver its first U.K. project: repositioning three adjacent office buildings into 170,000 square feet of flexible, multi-tenant lab and workspace. An 80% speculative fit-out enables tenants to occupy space within 12 weeks, while modular lab planning accommodates a wide range of scientific uses. Each building is a hybrid scientific workplace that combines lab space with various office needs for research, data science, collaboration, and focused work.

CamLIFE strengthens Cambridge’s standing as a global life sciences destination by unlocking lab capacity that lets companies scale within the region. Its adaptive reuse model demonstrates that retrofit can reduce carbon without compromising performance. A full lifecycle carbon analysis projects net-carbon savings by 2029 onward. Fast, flexible, and focused on wellbeing, CamLIFE lays the groundwork for a major new science and innovation destination.

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“

With Gensler’s architectural and design expertise, CamLIFE delivers sustainable, future-ready laboratory and workplace environments that encourage collaboration, wellbeing, and scientific progress.

—James Evans, Director of Operations at Longfellow

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