Science parks’ long-term success hinges on young people choosing careers in STEAM. So why don’t we design campuses to inspire the next generation, asks Fiona Du Fresne, Associate Partner at Ridge.

Future talent is a critical issue in the UK. Significant, widening skills gaps in technology, life sciences and engineering are already making recruitment harder, constraining innovation and threatening the UK’s competitiveness. This presents an existential threat to science parks, whose long-term sustainability depends on maintaining our leading position in science and research.  

But it’s also an opportunity for science parks to play an active role in inspiring the next generation, through better design, placemaking and community engagement. When secondary students are asked why they don’t consider jobs in STEAM – science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics – it’s often because they don’t understand what they involve, or how these subjects relate to real-world careers and impacts.  

Many employers already do great work in schools, but that’s not enough – we need inspiration to be embedded throughout society, and highly visible rather than confined to the classroom. Science campuses are often mysterious places for local populations. By becoming vibrant shopwindows for careers in science and technology, they can help to secure their own success.  

Build inspiration into the brief 

The first step is to make inspiration part of the project’s narrative, by co-developing a client brief that foregrounds access to STEAM careers. In practice, this might involve incorporating facilities to support grassroots science, or encouraging partnerships with schools, youth centres and community groups.  

Social value is already part of many schemes, but there is still enormous untapped potential, especially among consultants. Every firm should be asked to make a commitment to giving something back, not just contractors. At Ridge, we have a dedicated Social Value team who help us discover the most effective way to make a contribution, whether that’s through jobs, apprenticeships, services, support, investment or environmental improvements, and we’ve seen what a difference it can make.  

Putting science on show  

We can tell better STEAM stories in the way we design science parks – for example, by reducing physical barriers around and across sites, making the public realm walkable and fully accessible, with amenities that are open all week round. We can activate building frontages, including visual and data displays to turn buildings into teaching tools, inspire curiosity and bring science to life.  

Learning spaces on campus  

Many science spaces are designed to encourage accidental meetings and cross-pollination of ideas among scientists and academics – why not extend this to students? Incorporating spaces for knowledge sharing is a very powerful way to connect school students with world-class professionals and companies. Open floorplans, central atriums and shared social spaces like breakrooms and communal tables can add value for tenants as well as communities.  

A “fab lab” with 3D printers, laser cutters and design software is a brilliant way to engage families, enabling them to make their own creations with equipment that isn’t available at home or in school. Outside the buildings, many science parks are already beautiful green spaces, and community access can help them thrive not only during working hours but at evenings and weekends too. We can turn them into nature labs and real-world examples of climate and biological science, with curated walks that take in bug hunts, climate-resilient plant choices and public art. 

Balancing security and access  

Some tenants have very specific security needs, and an open-access park will not be the right location for them. But for the majority, we can use considered design to ensure they function securely while minimising visible boundaries. We work carefully with desire lines to create accessible routes, away from vehicles and heavy equipment, and we use landscaping and natural boundaries to protect more sensitive areas, rather than hard barriers like fences.  

A glazed active ground floor level makes a big difference to how welcoming a science park feels. Some of the most successful community learning spaces have entrances separate from office receptions, so people feel invited in rather than that they don’t belong. Access controls can be pulled back as far as possible – there’s no need to shut down a whole building to keep everyone safe. 

Winning community support 

Community access works best when it’s landlord-led, with tenant buy-in. It does require an ongoing financial commitment to managing learning spaces, hiring dedicated teams and facilitating outreach programmes. But being able to demonstrate a tangible public benefit can help substantially to secure planning approval. Science buildings are inherently large, due to plant and servicing requirements, and mass can be a contentious issue, especially in hotpots like Cambridge, Oxford or parts of London. We’ve found that planning authorities recognise that public benefits connected to learning and the local community can far outweigh the negative impacts.  

We’ve also found communities are very supportive when they can see the opportunities for themselves. Crucially, these shared facilities also help attract high-quality tenants and entice top talent, who are drawn to workplaces that demonstrate social purpose, openness and long-term investment in people and place. 

Science buildings are not just highly functional, they can be beautiful and inspiring too. There is something inherently fascinating about science, not only for future academics and researchers, but future entrepreneurs, designers and artists alike. More and more developers see the value of opening up their campuses, and enthusing the wider community about the essential work that takes place within them, as an investment not only in their own success but the longer-term prosperity of their sector, and the UK as a whole.  

Fiona Du Fresne is an Associate Partner in the Science team at Ridge, involved in masterplanning and architectural design for science parks and research hubs. Contact her at fionadufresne@ridge.co.uk