Golden Valley

Cheltenham, UK

Golden Valley will be a new garden community on the western edge of Cheltenham incorporating a hub for cyber security technology businesses alongside new residential and leisure facilities.

The development will include around 1000 new homes and 1m ft² of new commercial space. The site has excellent transport links, being situated close to the M5, Gloucester Airport, and with Cheltenham Spa railway station on the mainline between Bristol and Birmingham.

The aim is to build on Cheltenham’s significant reputation for cyber and digital technology industries and create a local hub for the cyber and digital technology sector of true global significance. This will provide a boost for the local economy, while helping to develop the specialist skills and capabilities within the cyber security technology sector.

The first phase of project delivery will involve construction of the National Cyber Innovation Centre and Mobility Hub buildings. This Innovation Centre will be a world-class facility, where innovation and collaboration across the cyber technology sector will be fostered. The Mobility Hub will encourage the use of more sustainable transport options throughout the development.

A broad, multidisciplinary team of experts from Buro Happold has been engaged to provide specialist support across all three elements – the masterplan, Innovation Centre and the Mobility Hub. This incorporates everything from geotechnical engineering to structural engineering, from acoustics to sustainability.

Cheltenham Borough Council’s ambition is to deliver a development with the highest environmental sustainability standards integrated into its design. The aspiration is to create an inclusive campus known for its quality of design, public spaces, and connectivity. The local authority has incorporated several targets into a sustainability strategy for the development, including requirements for achieving BREEAM Excellent buildings and RIBA climate challenge targets. Buro Happold’s approach to considering sustainability at the heart of all our work will be key to helping the client deliver on these aspirations.

The council’s own 2020 sustainability commitments include stipulations that the design for all new build projects will be net zero carbon in operation by 2030, while it has also pledged to reduce the embodied carbon intensity of all new buildings, major retrofits and infrastructure projects by 50% by 2030. For this project, this will include optimising the column grid design for the buildings, to ensure the materials and therefore embodied carbon footprint of the project is minimised.

GOLDEN VALLEY (goldenvalleyuk.com)