Architect brought in to design tower at £500m King’s Cross life sciences district

Morris & Co has joined the design team of a £500m mixed-use life sciences district in King’s Cross.

The practice will design towers up to 31 storeys in height for the Camley Street development, which is being master planned by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCBS).

The redevelopment of two former industrial sites at Camley Street and Cedar Way will see the construction of around 36,000 sq m of commercial floorspace and up to 410 homes for Ballymore and life sciences developer Lateral, which are working in a joint venture for Camden council.

It is one of the largest proposals for north London’s Knowledge Quarter, a burgeoning life sciences and research district around King’s Cross which also includes AHMM’s under-construction London Discovery Centre, the £1bn UK headquarters of global healthcare giant MSD, that is being built by Mace.

Morris & Co is understood to have been appointed towards the end of last year by Ballymore following the completion of its development agreement with Camden.

The practice will lead on the larger southern site at 3-30 Cedar Way, designing a cluster of buildings ranging from 11 to 31 storeys.

FCBS has retained its role as masterplanner of the wider development and will lead on the design of the northern site at 120 -136 Camley Street, which will contain buildings from 11 to 15 storeys.

A full planning application is expected to be submitted in the second half of this year, according to Ballymore.

Others working on the scheme include Spacehub as landscape architect, Turley on planning, Montagu Evans on heritage, Hoare Lea on sustainability, Velocity on transport and Temple on environment.

All existing buildings on the two sites will be demolished to make way for the new buildings, with enabling work expected to take around four months at Camley Street and six months at Cedar Way. The construction of the development is expected to take between three and four years.