The Development
Sustainable Development and Design
ARU Peterborough is located on the Embankment close to the city centre and to existing transport links and connections.
The campus creates a new high-quality higher education space for Peterborough and establishes a strong identity for the university in the city, including transforming an under-utilised concrete car park into a green, landscaped campus which is accessible to the public.
Priority has been given to pedestrian, cycle, and public transport use, within a developing travel plan for the campus.
Parking, a drop-off point and accessible parking spaces are also provided.
The phase 1 building is visible from the city and to passers. It is three storeys high, with plenty of glass to provide good daylight and natural ventilation as well as encompassing the views of Peterborough Cathedral, from the inside and outside of the building. On the ground floor on the south side there is a colonnade providing shelter when required as well as terrace seating. The front entrance is a main feature of the building located alongside the state-of-the-art lecture theatre. An open terrace on the second floor provides an external space with views towards the cathedral.
A colonnade to the south provides a sheltered, welcoming access to the building and the roof has a series of distinctive pyramidal lanterns which not only give the building a strong, identifiable skyline in the city but, more importantly, they enable the building to be naturally ventilated and bring more daylight into the heart of the building.
The building has a very open aspect to the south and west to a well landscaped campus garden, with solar shading to help reduce energy requirements and provide a comfortable internal environment. It has a green roof to increase biodiversity and control rainwater run off rates along with photo voltaic solar panels to generate renewable electricity. There are good views of the cathedral and city.
Phase 3 will be designed to reduce carbon and be energy efficient in its construction and operation. A number of designs and technologies, which are still at the planning stage, will be used to explore how the building can achieve a high BREEM rating, which is an industry standard measure of the sustainability of a building.
Phase 3 is planned for completion in Autumn 2024.
ARU Peterborough development ground floor plan
ARU Peterborough development ground floor plan
ARU Peterborough development first floor plan
ARU Peterborough development first floor plan
ARU Peterborough development second floor plan
ARU Peterborough development second floor plan
ARU Peterborough development roof plan
ARU Peterborough development roof plan
ARU Peterborough development building sections 01
ARU Peterborough development building sections 01
ARU Peterborough development building sections 02
ARU Peterborough development building sections 02
ARU Peterborough development building elevations
ARU Peterborough development building elevations
I want to find out more about the development
Find out more about the Anglia Ruskin Peterborough development by the CPCA
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Timelines and milestones
Key milestones in the development of ARU Peterborough
What next for the ARU Peterborough development?
The university will developed in phases over the next decade.
The First Teaching Building
(Students start September 2022)
This stage of the project sees the first students taught on campus at the Embankment site, and off campus through blended learning, distance learning, face to face on company premises and through local outreach centres.
Innovation and Research Centre
(Construction completes December 2022)
The Centre is a £16.7m joint venture between the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority and Peterborough-based business Photocentric and will link academia and industry in the second phase of the development of ARU Peterborough.
Arranged over three floors the centre will provide good quality, efficient and flexible space for research and development and will create a new high-quality space for the city, completing the transformation of the under-utilised Wirrina car park into a green, well landscaped campus, fully accessible to the public.
The building will be designed to both complement and be distinct from the first teaching building and be adaptable and flexible to accommodate future change. The project will promote visibility of research, internally and externally, and will provide inspiring spaces to encourage innovation, collaboration, and social interaction. It will embed the university in an ecosystem which blends academia, cutting edge research and entrepreneurship and enterprise. These ingredients have accelerated the Cambridge economy over the past decade
Research performed within the Centre will create a wide range of technologies, including new energy storage devices, specifically car batteries, manufacture new products using sustainable plastics and print industrial parts as opposed to moulding them. This will define the next generation of manufacturing methods making plastic, ceramic, metal and composite parts.
If you are interested in finding out more about securing space in the centre, please visit: Savills | Peterborough Innovation & Research Centre, Bishops Road, Peterborough, PE1 5BW | Property to rent
Second teaching facility and ‘Living Lab’
(Planned to open September 2024)
This will form phase 3 of the university and will expand the learning and teaching on offer as well as growth of the curriculum. The second teaching building will have capacity for 1,75o students, including school leavers and those in employment to study in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects.
Part of phase 3 will be a Living Lab open access public science centre. Local people and visitors will be able too engage with activities and events to inspire and educate. The Lab will be a key part of what will be university ‘Cultural Quarter’ — an attractive asset for the city and that will add vibrancy and interest. Funding for phase 3 has been secured, including through a successful £20 million bid to the Government’s Levelling Up Fund.