Place matters: Property, the life sciences and tech

The Francis Crick Institute is a remarkable building, designed to encourage collaboration, innovation, and transparency in biomedical research. The Institute’s purpose is clear – to improve the health and wealth of the UK though the life sciences. And it was here I had the chance to hear about the role of property development in supporting London’s Knowledge Clusters.

This event was a follow-up to the launch of the report, London’s Knowledge Clusters*, in October 2018.

Place matters

We know that place matters. And we see it with the historical development of business clusters in London – from finance in the City, Hatton Gardens and jewelry, to Saville Row and its bespoke tailoring. Knowledge ‘clusters’ are geographical locations which attract organisations from the knowledge economy with a clear focus is on intellectual capital. Being part of a cluster can create important opportunities for knowledge exchange and creation.

In the health sector, clusters tend to form around specific anchors such as hospitals or universities. They bring people together with a range of expertise, providing an ecosystem that if done right, can promote shared learning, collaborations and joint ventures.

The report, London’s Knowledge Clusters, focuses on four ecosystems – King’s Cross / Euston, White City, Whitechapel and Sutton. It identifies the key opportunities and challenges for London’s real estate industry in these areas. These opportunities and challenges for each are unique and I’ve written about these here.

How Knowledge Clusters come to be

Clusters are more than simply people and buildings. Integral to their success is that they become greater than the sum of their parts. And serendipity plays a role. In London, this has including a range of factors coming together in specific locations – history, communities, transport, leadership, vision and an openness to working across sectors and organisations.

Policy and vision have a clear role to play – in planning for roads and transport infrastructure, in supporting communities. And critical to this is the convergence of people and networks. In all of this, the property sector is a lynchpin, in developing adaptive buildings and spaces, including public realms, that facilitate the right environment for clusters to emerge.

Opportunities and challenges for property and the life sciences

What post-Brexit Britain will look like remains an unknown. But what is clear is that cluster growth cannot happen in isolation.

MedCity’s 2016 report, Planning for Growth, shows that in London, demand for healthcare R&D space clearly outstrips supply. Coupled with this are high real estate costs, challenges with securing funding when return on investment can take many years, and the slow pace of development. There is also a need to understand current and future needs of communities, of researchers, health services, scientists. This is something that requires a mix of early and ongoing stakeholder engagement and adaptive policy frameworks. But it’s not all about business, communities need to be at the heart of these conversations.

I’m excited about the opportunity to bring together institutions, health systems, and communities to design the spaces we need and want. And in the life sciences, this means developing spaces that meet today’s needs, and are adaptable for the future. It’s about building places and spaces that matter.

*The report by Jack Sallabank, Future Places Studio, was commissioned by the London Property Alliance (CPA and WPA) and sponsored by British Land, Cushman & Wakefield and Derwent London.