The phase one of the scheme was split into 11 separate lots.
Phase one: developments and their architects
- Lot 1 Food store, energy centre and University apartments: Wilkinson Eyre Architects, London with Mole Architects, Cambridge
- Lot 2 Shops, pub, University café, housing office and University apartments: Stanton Williams, London
- Lot 3 University apartments: Mecanoo, Delft
- Lot 4 University apartments and family houses: Cottrell & Vermeulen Architecture, Sarah Wigglesworth Architects and AOC, London
- Lot 5 Student housing: RH Partnership, Cambridge
- Lot 7 Community hall, health clinic and police office: MUMA, London
- Lot 8: University housing: Maccreanor Lavington and Witherford Watson Mann
- Lot 9: University market housing: Alison Brooks Architects
- Lot A (landscape) public realm and parklands: AECOM, London
- Lot B (landscape) market square and local centre public realm: Townshend Landscape Architects, London
RH Partnership has designed Lot 5 of the development, which involves the construction of student housing. The design of the new accommodation has been inspired by the traditional architecture of the prestigious Cambridge University and is expected to meet BREEAM excellent standards.
The scheme includes several three to five storey buildings arranged within open sided courts with an overall capacity of 325 bedspaces for postgraduate students.
North West Cambridge Development project director, Roger Taylor said: “These are the first buildings in Phase One that have received planning approval and they reflect the characteristics of the masterplan, which is to create a new, cohesive urban extension to Cambridge.”
RH Partnership project associate, Andrew Drummond, commented: “The traditional sequence and hierarchy of spaces within existing collegiate sites in Cambridge was the inspiration for the series of courts and landscaped garden spaces within our proposals, which creates clusters of post-graduate rooms forming varying sizes of houses.
“The proposal uses a simple palette of materials which draws on the underlying grain and character of Cambridge architecture.”
Construction works are planned to start this year with phased project completions from 2015 onwards.
Photo: Architects Journal
