A study visit revisiting more than fifteen years of cultural placemaking

This month the Futurecity team returned to Cambridge for a study visit, revisiting more than fifteen years of cultural placemaking across one of the world’s leading centres of science, medicine and innovation. There is something immensely rewarding about returning to projects years later, seeing how artworks become part of everyday life, how landscapes mature, and how culture continues to support the identity of an ever-evolving city.

A small city with global influence

Cambridge is a relatively small city with a truly global reach. Its university contributes nearly £30 billion to the UK economy each year and supports more than 86,000 jobs, generating £11.70 of economic impact for every £1 it spends. Its 126 Nobel-affiliated laureates are more than those of any other institution in the world.

Around the university has grown Europe’s most intense science and technology cluster, second globally only to Silicon Valley. It is home to more than 1,500 companies employing some 57,000 people and generating over £13 billion in annual revenue. At its heart, the Cambridge Biomedical Campus is the largest centre of medical research and health science in Europe, where over 23,000 people work alongside Addenbrooke’s, Royal Papworth and AstraZeneca’s global headquarters.

A city planning its future

That success now sits at the centre of national ambition. The Government’s “Cambridge 2040” vision and the newly established Greater Cambridge Development Corporation, launched in 2026, set out plans for up to 150,000 new homes and a major expansion of the Biomedical Campus, backed by billions in committed investment. The momentum is tangible: in August 2026, GSK announced a £400 million investment to establish a new 300,000 sq ft global research and development centre at the Campus, consolidating its UK R&D operations in Cambridge.

What distinguishes Cambridge’s growth story is that culture, public art and community engagement are being written into it from the outset, not as decoration, but as core tools of placemaking that give new neighbourhoods identity, connection and a sense of belonging.

Fifteen years of placemaking in Cambridge

Futurecity has been part of that story for over fifteen years. We have delivered more than 30 permanent artworks embedded within many of the city’s most significant developments, helping to shape the place identity of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and Great Kneighton, one of Cambridge’s most ambitious new residential communities. Our flagship commissions include the Cambridge Biomedical Campus Sculpture Trail, a body of public art woven through a world-class centre of science and medicine; the arts programme at Royal Papworth Hospital; and the commissions at Cambridge Riverside and Clay Farm that give new communities their own cultural anchor.

Community engagement sits at the heart of this work. In Great Kneighton and the wider Trumpington neighbourhood, our four-year programme Habitorials - The Showground of Real Living, led by the internationally renowned artist Jeanne van Heeswijk, brought existing and new communities together to forge the future direction of social and cultural infrastructure across this rapidly changing Southern Fringe of the city. At the new Trumpington Community College, Umbrellium’s Cinder, a digital cat that lives within the building’s sustainability systems and responds in real time to its energy use, became a playful platform for engaging young people in energy, sustainability and the environment.

Rather than treating public art as standalone objects, our approach uses the arts to strengthen place, reveal local stories and enrich everyday experience. Each commission responds to its context, reflecting Cambridge’s unique combination of academic excellence, scientific discovery and community life.

Positioned for what comes next

As Cambridge enters its most significant period of growth in a generation, Futurecity is strategically placed to keep contributing to its social sustainability and cultural prominence. We continue to advise on major schemes across the city, bringing an established understanding of local planning frameworks and, above all, of what makes cultural placemaking endure. The result is a body of work that demonstrates how thoughtful cultural placemaking can contribute to the long-term success of one of the world’s foremost knowledge cities.

Request our Cambridge Brochure

We’ve produced a brochure showcasing our cultural placemaking work across Cambridge. To request a copy, email us at info@futurecity.co.uk.

Futurecity in the Field is a series of dispatches from the cultural frontline.

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