Proposals drawn up by the two practices to improve the energy performance of the estate through renovation and the addition of a new tower-like building designed to harvest energy from the River Cam were given the go-ahead by Cambridge City Councils planning committee on Wednesday (2 April).Caruso St John's proposals include upgrades to the existing building fabric of the colleges Hermitage building, Newnham Grange, Stevenson Building, Rayne Building and Dining Hall, a Grade II-listed building designed by Howell, Killick, Partridge & Amis in 1966.The works include new glazing and insulation as well as other upgrades to thermal performance of the estate to facilitate connection to a low-carbon heat network. Caruso St John said the upgrades would be sensitively incorporated into the historic fabric of Darwins estate.AdvertisementThe London and Zurich-based practice has also delivered designs for a new social space, dubbed the Garden Room, beneath the existing Dining Hall, which the college says will deliver a space for meetings with views of the colleges gardens.Caruso St John's Darwin College Cambridge upgrade project (approved 2025) - site plan5th Studio's work includes the erection of a new 11.2m-high pumphouse building for river-source energy generation from the River Cam, proving heating and hot water for the majority of the Colleges central Cambridge estate. It is expected to be the first river-source heat pump at this scale planned for the university and city.ThePumpHouse will house heat pumps, circulationpumps, filtration equipment, thermal stores, expansion equipment and ancillaries to form a fully operational central heating system, 5th Studio says.The practice says the design of the was inspired by surrounding buildings and the industrial heritage of the site, while raising the profile of sustainable solutions.The project also includes biodiversity upgrades through the integration of habitats for swifts and bats within its shingle cladding.AdvertisementNicola Blake, project architect at 5th Studio, said the pumphouse not only enables the reduction of operational carbon, but minimises embodied carbon in its own construction with steel reclaimed from the gas industry and low-carbon concrete, potentially using the locally invented Cambridge Electric Cement.A timeline for completion is not known.