Cambridge 2000: St John's Innovation Centre: Cowley Road: Ionica headquarters building
St John's Innovation Centre: Cowley Road: Ionica headquarters building
Ionica was a company which provided an innovative
telephone service for the local loop using fixed
radio access. It started life in 1991 in the
St John's Innovation Centre.
In 1994 it moved next door into its new purpose-built headquarters.
In 1997 it was briefly Cambridge's first billion dollar company,
with over 1000 employees.
In 1998 it went into administration, many would argue
unnecessarily.
The building was also innovative in that it uses natural heating
and cooling as much as possible, in particular
it has six wind-assisted ventilation towers. These work fine until
the outside temperature reaches around 27-30 degrees Centigrade,
which normally happens for a couple of weeks a year in Cambridge.
After being empty for almost two years the building was occupied in
2000 by another new hi-tech Cambridge company, Zeus, and the building
was renamed Zeus House. They too fell on hard times, and vacated the
building a few years later.
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