Cambridge Architecture CA77

77 Cambridge Architecture

Winter/Spring 2019

A broader perspective

Local plans

The key policy changes that will affect Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire

Examining the Arc

What are the next steps to be taken in realising the Cambridge-Oxford Corridor?

Cambridge design studio

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COMING SOON

77

Contents

24

30

Contents 4-5 News

27-29 For and against

6-9 The treadmill keeps turning

30-31 Off-grid winner

The latest from RIBA, consultation deadlines and events

We look at plans for a new garden community in Uttlesford

Former city planning chief Peter Studdert explores the current vision for our region

10-15 Examining the arc

Lochside House is crowned RIBA House of the Year 2018

Kieran Perkins of 5th Studio details work linked to the Cambridge-Oxford Corridor

17-19 Strategic planning

33 What will B the future?

34-35 From Passivhaus to Lego

ADVERTISEMENT SALES Marie Luise CritchleyWaring (advertising@cambridgearchitects.org) Published by CPL

20-23 Common room

36-37 Look north

CAA visits the Cambridge Biomedical Campus to explore AstraZeneca's new HQ

Any comments or for a copy of the magazine, contact editors@cambridgearchitects.org EDITORS David Adams, Tom Foggin, Susie Lober, Natalie Matanda

Simon Smith, of the Cambridge Forum for the Construction Industry, is in the hot seat

24-25 Game of light

Cambridge Architecture is a review produced by the Cambridge Association of Architects, the local chapter of the Royal Institute of British Architects. The views in this magazine are those of individual contributors (named and unnamed), and not of the Association.

ISSN 1361-3375

In the wake of Grenfell, we explore the guidance and definitions in Approved Document B

Carter Jonas' Colin Brown highlights key policy changes within Local Plans

First-year students design and build a meeting space for community gardeners

Cambridge Architecture

www.cpl.co.uk

Introducing the North Cambridgeshire Society of Architects

Cover photo Š Richard Fraser Photography

38-39 Work in progress

A round-up of the projects we are currently working on

The CAA thanks the following sponsors AC Architects Cambridge Ltd BB&C Architects Limited BCR Infinity Architects Borough Architects Colen Lumley RIBA DaltonMuscat Architects LLP Donald Insall Associates EIKON Architecture and Design

Emma Adams Architect Feilden + Mawson George Davidson Architect Graham Handley Architects Karen Rainsford Architect M Reynolds RIBA Mart Barrass Architect Ltd Mole Architects N J Twitchett

Neale Associates Peter Rawlings Architects Ltd R H Partnership Architects Ltd Raydan Watkins Architects Richard Goy Architect Saunders Boston Snell David Architects Studio 24 Architects

CA77 was made possible by the kind donations from the Cambridge Forum for the Construction Industry

Cambridge Architecture 3

News and events

News

Welcome Welcome to issue 77 of Cambridge Architecture. The magazine has had a major revamp of its layout and style, giving it a bold new look, as well as a slightly earlier publishing date. We hope you like it as much as we do.

Following on from last issue’s topic of the planning system, we look at Cambridge and further afield, examining the developments – or not – along the arc of the Cambridge-Oxford Corridor.

In similar fashion, CA's own Susie Lober looks at the development proposed for nearby Uttlesford.

While homes are undoubtedly needed, are these the right homes in the right place?

Rather more northerly, we have an in-depth feature on the RIBA House of the Year. The scheme by local practice Haysom Ward Miller is situated in the dramatic and wild landscape of Scotland and has garnered wide praise.

Returning to Cambridge, we look at the ever-fascinating first-year work by students of the Department of Architecture at the University of Cambridge.

Throughout this issue, we continue with our regular features that have been revised for 2019. Send us your feedback on the new look for Cambridge Architecture!

It promises to be an interesting year...

The editors

4 Cambridge Architecture

Cambridge practice wins RIBA House of the Year award Cambridge-based Haysom Ward Miller has won the RIBA House of the Year Award 2018 for Lochside, a highly energy efficient, larch-clad dwelling in Scotland. The RIBA judges said: ‘The scale, material choices, use of the setting and

integration into the landscape were all excellent.

A sustainable building making good use of wood was a delight to visit. The care in the design and in the building of this house makes it an exemplar of its genre.’ See pages 28-29 for more.

Professor Lord Robert Mair debates off-site construction Professor Lord Robert Mair, head of the Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) at the University of Cambridge, joined a House of Lords debate in December into off-site manufacture.

Lord Mair, a member of the Science and Technology Committee, took part in the debate that followed a report published last year – Off-site manufacture for construction: Building for change.

While the government indicated it had intentions to adopt some of the report's recommendations, including its “presumption in favour” of off-site manufacture by 2019, Lord Mair said the response by government to the recommendations in general was “lukewarm”.

He urged the government to “clarify how the presumption in favour will be given more teeth”.

News and events

2019 set to be busy consultation period

Events

A number of important public consultations have been started in the first three months of 2019, as part of major new developments across, and connecting to, the region:

sites in and around Cambridge

Cambridge Northern Fringe Area Action Plan

Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council are jointly preparing a North East Cambridge Area Action Plan. They said: “We’ll soon be asking for your views on opportunities for development of the area west of the new Cambridge North train station, together with Cambridge Science Park.”

The vision is: “North East Cambridge will be a socially and economically inclusive, thriving, and low-carbon place for innovative living and working; inherently walkable where everything is on your doorstep.” The consultation, which began on 11 February, runs until 5pm on Monday 25 March 2019. Visit www.cambridge.gov.uk/cambridge-northern-fringe-area-action-plan

Call for sites for Greater Cambridge Local Plan

Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council want to know about potential sites or broad locations for development for the upcoming Greater Cambridge Local Plan, set to start later this year. The government requires local planning authorities to conduct a ‘call for sites’ exercise as a key component of the Strategic Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment. The consultation, which began on 11 February, ends at 5pm on Monday 25 March 2019. Visit www.cambridge.gov.uk/call-for-sites

East West Rail route consultation

CFCI: Major new housing 11 March 2019, 6.30pm Gillespie Centre, Clare College, Cambridge See www.cfci.org.uk for more information and to book tickets.

RIBA: Plan of Work through the conservation lens 4 April 2019, 2pm-4.30pm Future Business Centre, King's Hedges Road, Cambridge, CB4 2QT See www.architecture.com for more information and to book tickets.

As part of the rail route connecting Oxford to Cambridge, East West Rail wants to establish the location for new parts of the line. While the Western section (from Bedford to Oxford) can use existing routes, the central section (from Cambridge to Bedford) needs a new line to be constructed. East West Rail has developed route options and wants your views.

The public consultation will run until 11 March 2019. Visit www.eastwestrail.co.uk/haveyoursay

RIBA: Your essential guide to designer duties 28 March 2019, 2pm-4.30pm Anglia Ruskin University, Bishop Hall Lane, Chelmsford, CM1 1SQ See www.architecture.com for more

Call for supportive immigration reform A report published by RIBA in January argues for drastic reform of the UK’s immigration system.

Powered by people: Building a postBrexit immigration system for UK architecture, sets out what is needed to ensure the system supports, rather than damages, the UK’s vital architecture sector.

information and to book tickets.

Future Place initiative gets under way

See bit.ly/ca77people

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Institute condemns extension of permitted development rules RIBA has expressed significant concerns in its response to the government consultation on planning reforms.

The consultation proposes extending a policy related to the change of use of buildings from offices to homes, which has already been proven to lead to substandard housing.

RIBA, the Chartered Institute of Housing, Local Government Association and Royal Town Planning Institute launched Future Place in 2018.

This joint, two-phase initiative is designed to recognise, reward and encourage high-quality placemaking in England.

Phase one will look at local planning authorities’ roles in creating great places to live and work, examining exemplar schemes and future potential.

The second phase will ask local authorities to nominate two Future Place-makers from their team to participate in a leadership programme, after which a digital resource will be created to share best practice and processes.

For more information, see bit.ly/ca77future

●

CFCI: Cranmer Road Passivhaus accommodation for King’s College 15 April 2019, 6.30pm Gillespie Centre, Clare College, Queen’s Road, Cambridge CB3 9AJ See www.cfci.org.uk for more information and to book tickets.

CFCI: The Grenfell Tower disaster: What have we learned?

Monday 13 May 2019, 6.30pm Gillespie Centre, Clare College, Queen’s Road, Cambridge CB3 9AJ See www.cfci.org.uk for more information and to book tickets.

Cambridge Architecture 5

Opinion: Local Plan

Š Holford & Wright, University Press

The treadmill keeps turning Outline development plan, 1950

6 Cambridge Architecture

© Cambridge City Council

Opinion: Local Plan

After the adoption of the Local Plans for South Cambridgeshire and Cambridge, in September and October 2018 respectively, the former head of planning at Cambridge City Council explores the context and story behind the current vision for our city region WORDS PETER STUDDERT

The Cambridge planning scene has become much more complicated over the past 10 years. In retrospect, preparation of the 2006 Local Plan was pretty straightforward compared with the fraught and protracted birth of its 2018 successor – even though the 2006 version was the one that finally broke the straitjacket imposed on Cambridge’s growth by the Holford and Wright Plan of 1950.

The radical ideas of the 2006 plan, however, flowed logically from the succinct Regional Planning Guidance for East Anglia, prepared in 2000, and the strategic vision for the county enshrined in the 2003 Structure Plan. Much of the heavy lifting had already been done.

With the reckless abolition of regional planning by the coalition government in 2011, local authorities were thrown back onto the ill-defined ‘duty to cooperate’ to resolve their strategic planning issues – particularly when agreeing the scale and location of new housing developments. Subsequent initiatives by government to reinvigorate strategic cooperation have added as much confusion as clarity.

A good start, however, was made in the 2013 Greater Cambridge City Deal, which offered significant capital funds for improving Cambridge’s infrastructure in return for accelerated housing delivery. It had the major benefit of focusing attention on Cambridge and its immediate surroundings and was helpfully rebranded as the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP).

Waters were muddied by the establishment, in 2016, of the Combined Authority of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, with a directly elected mayor.

Those of us who thought Cambridge had escaped its historic entanglement with Peterborough in the 1994 local government reorganisation have had to think again. The combined authority has been given the job of preparing a ‘Non-statutory Spatial Plan’ of uncertain weight and purpose, along with a highly questionable – if not reckless – target of doubling the size of the area’s economy by 2050.

Meanwhile, the county council has unwisely decided to decamp to Alconbury, potentially rendering itself irrelevant to its county town.

The government has added further complexity by backing ambitious plans for growth in the Oxford to Cambridge ‘corridor’, with another questionable target of building an additional one million homes in the area over the next 25 years, and hints of some over-arching body to provide strategic oversight.

The pre-2011 system of sensible regional planning seems now to have been replaced by a mishmash of disconnected government interventions with ‘targets’ seemingly plucked out of thin air.

With institutional infighting threatening to engulf Cambridge, the private sector and

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Schematic diagram of spatial components in the 2006 Local Plan

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Cambridge Architecture 7

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Opinion: Local Plan

Cambridge East Area Action Plan concept diagram summarising proposals to 'create a new and distinctive sustainable community on the eastern edge of Cambridge', adopted February 2008

academia have moved in to fill the policy gap through the agency of Cambridge Ahead. Working in partnership with the business board of the combined authority, it commissioned the Cambridge and Peterborough Independent Economic Review under the chairmanship of Dame Kate Barker, which produced its final report in September 2018. This identifies and documents the distinct economies of Cambridge, Peterborough and the Fens, and presents some pretty scary projections of employment growth for Cambridge if recent trends persist. This will, undoubtedly, set the scene for an even more ferocious debate about the future size and shape of Cambridge’s growth.

Work is ongoing within the University’s Department of Architecture to produce a ‘Cambridge Futures 3’ to evaluate the spatial options that might respond to the scale of growth

“The pre-2011 system of sensible regional planning seems now to have been replaced by disconnected government interventions”

anticipated, and to feed into the preparation of the next Joint Plan for Greater Cambridge, which has to be submitted by summer 2022. But what are the likely spatial options for Cambridge?

The 2018 plan carried forward the major growth sites identified in the 2006 plan, but had to address the significant hole left by the inability of Marshall Aerospace to find a relocation site for Cambridge Airport – which had been removed from the Green Belt specifically to provide a major eastwards expansion of Cambridge. Alternative allocations were made to the west of Cambridge, around Cambourne, and to the north at the proposed new town at Waterbeach. The former allocation has given the GCP the headache of trying to find a route for a reliable public transport system to the west of the city that can be delivered without affecting sensitive landscape. It is no accident that previous (unimplemented) plans for expanding Cambridge – whether by Gordon Logie in 1966 or J Parry Lewis in 1974 – all avoided going west and focused growth on southern or eastern corridors.

So, in my view, any discussion about Cambridge’s future growth must start again with the airport and point east. Eastwards is the most obvious direction for Cambridge to expand if it is to grow organically, maintain a relatively compact footprint and avoid sensitive landscape to the west and south. There already exists a public transport corridor in the Newmarket railway line, and building a significant, high-density second centre for Cambridge on the airport would have the added advantage of relieving pressure on the historic centre. It has a big enough critical mass to be a significant mixed-use centre, while extensions in other directions can only be relatively modest and will still depend on the historic centre for many services.

If the availability of the airport cannot be relied on in the next plan period, the authorities will have some difficult choices to make. Government policy – and local sentiment – still argues against significant changes to the Green Belt, and growth may well have to rely on more remote new settlements along transport corridors.

But can the UK planning system deliver new settlements with the speed, and of the quality, that is necessary – and can the public transport infrastructure be delivered to support them in our deregulated system?

Lessons will have to be learned from Northstowe, which is only now beginning to take shape, 15 years after its allocation in the Structure Plan. Maximum use will have to be made of new powers to declare local Development Corporations to assemble land and lead the new developments – but will the public sector have the resources and capacity to deliver?

Cambridge Architecture 9

Insight: Cambridge-Oxford Corridor

Examining the arc

There has been much discussion of the ‘Cambridge-Oxford Corridor’ – or the ‘Oxford-Cambridge Arc’ – but not, perhaps, an awful lot of visible progress. Cambridge Architecture asked Kieran Perkins, of 5th Studio, to explain more about its successful work on the National Infrastructure Commission report in 2017 and where the next steps might lead WORDS KIERAN PERKINS, ASSOCIATE, 5TH STUDIO IMAGES 5TH STUDIO & SQW

I

n 1209, a group of scholars, exiled from Oxford, traipsed 60-odd miles to the edge of the Fens and established England’s second university. In the process, they unwittingly delineated the ‘Oxford-Cambridge Arc’, a zone that would become one of the most innovative and productive areas of the country – indeed, the world.

The journey is not much faster now than it was then, with an average ‘as the crow flies’ speed of about 25mph by train, via London. Travel by road is similarly sluggish. The closure of the Varsity Line in the 1960s is indicative of the lack of east-west connectivity. While Milton

10 Cambridge Architecture

Keynes – in the centre of the Arc, about 50 miles from London – has been growing rapidly since it was founded 50 years ago, a lack of housing delivery is constraining economic growth elsewhere.

Early attempts at a coordinated response to these challenges were frustrated by the abolition of the Regional Development Agencies and regional planning in 2010, before being revived in 2016 when Chancellor George Osborne asked the newly established National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) to: ‘... make recommendations to maximise the potential of the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford corridor as a single, knowledge-intensive

cluster that competes on the global stage, while protecting the area’s high-quality environment and securing the homes and jobs the area needs.

The commission will look at the priority infrastructure improvements needed and assess the economic case for which investments would generate the most growth’.

After an initial information-gathering stage, the NIC commissioned several parallel and interconnected studies. 5th Studio won the competitive tender to complete a study to consider the spatial implications of accommodating growth of up to one million new homes across the corridor, using the outcomes of three other

Insight: Cambridge-Oxford Corridor

Plan showing total urbanised area between London and Birmingham at 30-40 year intervals across the 20th century Diagram of different conditions along the East West Rail and Expressway corridors (only) generated from constraints mapping

studies looking at transport, economics and the housing market. Specifically, this was to ‘reach conclusions and make recommendations for the forms of housing development that best fit the needs of the corridor, meeting housing need and supporting jobs and growth’.

The study

During the commission, we developed a thorough understanding of the corridor, its issues and its potential, through a detailed literature review, site visits, extensive cross-corridor mapping, and spatial analysis.

Initial investigations found evidence of the severe neglect and under-utilisation of scarce land resources, together with continued use of outmoded models of development that perpetuate car reliance and the delivery of poorly designed buildings and neighbourhoods.

Analysis of growth within the corridor over the past century showed that the ‘one million new homes’ scenario – which formed the basis of the study – supposes year-on-year housing growth similar to the long-term average, and well within the rate achieved in the period of fastest growth.

However, the market had failed to provide anywhere near the levels needed to reach that target in recent years.

This understanding, and the freedom of working across administrative boundaries and departmental silos, enabled a proposition for a cost-effective and resource-efficient spatial framework that integrates planning of development and transport, while respecting the character and constraints of the territory.

This framework was supplemented by a description of a series of settlement-scale development typologies in the form of site-specific case studies – two of which are described below.

Potentially applicable to other sites across the corridor, these were developed with reference to best-practice case studies from the UK and abroad, and through in-situ testing, by examining how they might work in a real-world location within the corridor.

Map showing quantum of development, indicating current planned development, required development, and development accommodated because of pressure from other areas

Plan showing the existing pattern of key knowledgeintensive and growth sectors in the region

Cambridge Architecture 11

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Insight: Cambridge-Oxford Corridor

Cambridgeshire case studies Bassingbourn Barracks

Plan of Bassingbourn case study, indicating key development principles: 1) Strong High St 2) Railway as meeting point 3) Using site features 4) Co-opting mature landscape

Overview from the west, showing a restored West Field bracketed by new development, but with the direct relationship between the countryside and the historic core of the city preserved

Diagram of Bassingbourn case study, showing key relationship with rail development

Plan of West Cambridge study, proposing ‘green fingers’ and careful development within and at the edges of the zone

The MOD site at Bassingbourn, via which the proposed rail connection between Cambridge and Bedford could be routed, was chosen as the testbed for the ‘New Town’.

The population would be large enough to justify a station on the new railway, but the town compact enough that most internal journeys could be made by walking and cycling. In the tradition of the market town, the settlement is focused on a single, multifunctional centre surrounded by mainly residential areas bounded by countryside. It is large enough to be selfcontained for day-to-day activities – in a way that a village, generally, is not – and with a relatively diverse economy. It would nevertheless require a close relationship with Cambridge, which would offer the higher-order services not available locally and to which the New Town would provide workers, with direct trains to three of the main employment areas.

Most of the settlement should be within a 15-minute walk of the centrally located station. Internally, there would be a permeable network of streets and relatively high densities, offering an alternative to the more suburban/village character of most development in the hinterland of Cambridge, giving greater choice, and appealing to changing tastes and lifestyles.

West Cambridge

Most contemporary urban extensions are far away from the centre of the host place, and often separated by impermeable suburban development. This is problematic because the degree of integration between the two is a key factor in helping new residents establish sustainable and healthier patterns of movement. This site was one of only a handful we found whereby a truly successful ‘Urban Extension’ might be possible.

It is not without its challenges – foremost, the role of the greenbelt in protecting the setting of the city and the proximity of the historic core to the countryside. This led to the proposal for a landscape-led masterplan to simultaneously enhance people’s experience of the relationship between the city centre and the countryside while making the most of areas within a short walk of the city centre.

The university rugby ground is relocated to the west, to allow the creation of a green finger running from West Road outwards to the West Field, offsetting the loss of green belt.

The West Field could be restored as an open area for public enjoyment, biodiversity and sport, as well as a periodic flood plain from Bin Brook. Improvements to existing links would allow Coton Countryside Reserve and the West Field to form a

Cambridge Architecture 13

Insight: Cambridge-Oxford Corridor

circuit spanning the M11, further breaking down perceived barriers between the city and its surrounding landscape.

Medium to high-density development would be arranged at the edges of the West Field, with careful integration of sensitive edge relationship to existing residential areas.

Our conclusions

The case studies showed there is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution, but that a diversity of development forms would be needed to produce the best overall result, given the wide spectrum of conditions across the Arc. To realise the scale of growth envisioned this would, however, need to include larger-scale new settlements if the cumulative cost of infrastructure and impact on the countryside is to be limited.

We found that successful growth is likely to be determined by a combination of two key factors: first, how any particular potential growth location relates to the wider context, in particular its place within the transport network and its connections to other centres; and second, that the development itself be well designed, and meet certain qualitative criteria specific to the type of settlement.

The detailed recommendations related to these two factors can be found in our Final Report1, which is available online, but – in broad – they call for: Much stronger, intelligent integration of transport and land-use planning, especially in the case of East West Rail, the Oxford to Cambridge Expressway, and the planning of the ‘missing scale’ of high-quality local transit

Greater adherence to the NPPF’s stipulation (as it was expressed at the time of writing the report) that transport be ‘balanced in favour of sustainable transport modes’ by completing a comprehensive public transport network and ensuring excellent walking and cycling facilities at local level

An insistence on exemplary urban design – which means employing good designers – whatever the form of settlement in question, and the avoidance of generic responses, developer ‘products’ and layouts that do not take account of local conditions.

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The strategy for the spatial distribution of growth differs according to location within the corridor, broadly split into sub-regional zones

14 Cambridge Architecture

Nine typologies were identified, broken down into three broad types An example of the mutually supportive relationship between a coordinated and comprehensive transport system and a high-quality, intensively developed regeneration and development project

Insight: Cambridge-Oxford Corridor

Progress since 2017

Outwardly, progress seems slow. Our work formed part of the evidence base for the NIC’s report Partnering for Prosperity2, which was presented to the government in Autumn 2017. In Autumn 2018, the government responded to this report with a paper3 linked to the Budget, in which it reiterated its ambition for the OxfordCambridge Arc and committed, among other things, to: Consult in early 2019 on route options for the East West Rail Central Section (Bedford to Cambridge)

Publish an ambitious, corridor-wide Joint Vision Statement to 2050 with local partners by spring 2019

Explore options for delivering a pan-

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Arc spatial vision, underpinned by a local natural capital plan, to coordinate investment in housing, infrastructure and the environment

Consult on route options for the Expressway in late 2019 and then announce a decision on a preferred route

Consider ways of maximising growth opportunities in the Arc

Complete the analysis to understand housing growth scenarios and the associated infrastructure required

Agree, with local partners, an approach for a strengthened, democratically accountable Arc governance structure.

The final alignment of East West Rail is of particular interest to Cambridge, and

Map showing one way in which the full range of typologies could be deployed across the corridor. But where is the government’s delivery mechanism to achieve this?

A new type of town: image taken from 5th Studio’s project ‘Calvert: A City in a Garden’, a high-density, compact city that creates a buzzing, walkable, mixeduse and determinedly urban setting

will strongly influence opportunities for growth in South Cambridgeshire, near Sandy, around Bedford and in Marston Vale – so I hope the process of selecting the route is conducted with an open mind and creativity, and that the additional route our report highlighted is among those appraised.

I also hope that appraisal is grounded in a detailed comparative study of the development opportunities and the cost/ benefit of a range of alternative East West Rail alignments – and corresponding ‘finalmile’ public transport connections options – related to these, as well as the usual criteria of cost, engineering feasibility and environmental impact.

The case studies we produced show how infrastructure choices can fundamentally affect the form of development, and its success in terms of liveability and sustainability. It is vital that these factors are understood and considered – hopefully in light of the recommendations in our report – instead of thinking of settlements as mere ‘blobs’ on a map. Testing, coordination and design skill are needed to make the most of the planned investment by supporting the creation of sustainable patterns of development.

If the pan-Arc vision does not come forward until after the rail alignment is decided, it could be too late. It is already ‘early’ 2019, so perhaps by the time you read this article we will know the outcome …

Endnotes 1 www.nic.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/171122NIC-Final-Report-5th-Studio-optimised.pdf 2 www.nic.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/ Partnering-for-Prosperty.pdf 3 assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/ uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/ file/752040/Government_response_to_ Partnering_for_Prosperity_a_new_deal_for _the_Cambridge-Milton__Keynes_Oxford_ Arc.pdf

Cambridge Architecture 15

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Technical: Local Plan

Strategic planning With increased housing provision and more jobs on the horizon, Colin Brown, partner at Carter Jonas, highlights key changes to policy within the newly adopted Local Plans and discusses their potential impact WORDS COLIN BROWN, CARTER JONAS

A collective sigh of relief may have been audible within the corridors of power at Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council when the inspector’s report into the Examination of the Local Plan finally landed in 2018.

Work that had started in 2011 had finally borne fruit and, after the independent Examination – lasting from March 2014 until August 2018 – the new Local Plans, one for each authority, were deemed ‘sound’, subject to a number of main modifications. At long last, the new planning blueprints are in place, superseding previous plans as the primary determinant of planning applications within the two authority areas.

“At last, the new planning blueprints are in place” The new plans run until 2036, but work has already started on a combined new Local Plan for Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire, which is expected to be in place by 2022/23.

Meanwhile, the government has revised the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), resulting in some inconsistencies. Local authorities are urged to ensure their plans are brought into line with the NPPF; however, ‘existing policies should not be considered out of date… Due weight should be given to them, according to their degree of consistency with this framework (the closer the policies in the plan to the policies in the framework, the greater the weight that may be given).’

Accordingly, authorities will need to consider their new policies alongside the NPPF and apply weight in an appropriate manner.

‘Your Local Plan Needs You’ cover image from CA65 featuring the Local Plan consultation, Spring 2013

Cambridge Architecture 17

Technical: Local Plan

Summary of spatial plan for South Cambridgeshire

The big picture

© South Cambridgeshire District Council

At a strategic level, the plans make provision, jointly, for 33,500 new homes and 44,000 new jobs. There will be continued growth on the edges of the city – including the southern fringe and to the north-west of the city at Darwin Green and Eddington – and major growth around the new Cambridge North Station. New sites have also been released at Wort’s Causeway and north of Cherry Hinton.

Outside of the city, the main committed sites are a westerly extension to Cambourne, Bourn Airfield and Waterbeach, which will be a substantial new settlement. The plans also extend the allocation at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, to facilitate further growth.

Infrastructure

South Cambridgeshire Local Plan

18 Cambridge Architecture

The plans seek to ensure that transport infrastructure is delivered alongside new development. They make it clear that large-scale new development in the A428 and A10 corridors will need to be accompanied by sustainable

transport initiatives. Inevitably, this is proving controversial, with residents west of Cambridge concerned about the impact of new transport infrastructure on the Green Belt and on the setting and tranquillity of villages.

Housing

The inspector accepted a ‘joint housing trajectory’, recognising the close relationship between Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire, and the joint housing market that subsists.

One implication is that South Cambridgeshire considers it can now demonstrate a five-year housing-land supply, potentially ending the many ‘speculative’ applications delivering hundreds of units in the area.

Key policy considerations for designers are those in the Local Plans that concern the built environment and how applications are to be assessed. Both plans are predicated on the drive towards achieving sustainable development and this is reflected in their relevant policy frameworks.

Technical: Local Plan

Sustainability

The city Local Plan contains a policy (28) on achieving minimum standards of sustainable construction, carbon reduction and water efficiency ‘unless it can be demonstrated that such provision is not technically or economically viable’.

In a tightening of the policy from the previous Local Plan, all new housing developments will be required to achieve a 44 per cent reduction in onsite carbon emissions compared to Part L 2006. This equates to a 19 per cent requirement for onsite renewable technologies – almost double the previous 10 per cent requirement. For nonresidential buildings, the new plan requires Breeam Excellent to be achieved as a minimum.

“Having up-todate Local Plans is positive, as it can bring confidence about how planning decisions will be approached” Residential space standards

Both plans introduce minimum residential space standards tied to the government’s Technical Housing Standards of 2015. On one hand, this will deliver larger units, but there remains a residual concern – in an expensive housing area – that it could limit the provision of smaller studios and other flats that can be more ‘attainable’, particularly for the younger generation.

Accessible homes

A new policy (51) in the city Local Plan says that ‘all housing development should be of a size, configuration and internal layout to enable Building Regulations requirement M4 (2) “accessible and adaptable dwellings” to be met’. Currently, there is a suggestion that this is going to result in a need for 100 per cent of units in new schemes to meet accessible standards.

Affordable housing

Initially, under the new Local Plans for both local authorities, schemes of 11 or more homes had to deliver affordable units. Since adoption of the Local Plans, however, the authorities have reduced this, as the revised NPPF states that schemes that are not major developments (fewer than 10 units) should not have to supply affordable housing.

ur Visit O om ShowroFri Mon - pm 7am - 5

Key diagram for South Cambridgeshire local plan, summarising main strategies in and around the city region.

The councils have interpreted this to mean that developments of 10 homes or more should deliver affordable units; this is the first instance of the NPPF being given greater weight, less than three months after adoption of the new plans.

Having up-to-date Local Plans is positive,

as it can bring confidence about how planning decisions will be approached. Inevitably, there will be times when policies contradict one another; then, decision-makers must apply a planning balance and exercise their judgement, based on all material factors.

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Cambridge Architecture 19

Š Francis Fawcett

First-year live project

Common room: learning about architecture as a process 20 Cambridge Architecture

First-year live project

Every year, the University of Cambridge’s new architecture students spend a term designing and building a real project for a local organisation. This year, they had to create a meeting space for the Empty Common Community Garden, tackling the complex elements of working collaboratively with the architect, the gardening group and the engineers WORDS JULIKA GITTNER, FIRST-YEAR STUDIO MASTER

T

© Philipp Ebeling

he expression of disbelief – and anxiety – on the faces of the newly arrived Year One architecture students when we presented them with our past live building projects now seems a distant memory.

What seemed impossible to them on day one now constitutes their first achievement in learning how to contribute in a meaningful way to the process of making architecture.

On the way, they acquired many new and unconventional skills, including how to source and scrub hundreds of tins, or devise ways of weaving walls from wicker and seats from bicycle inner-tubes, as well as becoming nimble scaffolders and prolific scavengers of recycled materials.

We first got involved with the project to design and build a meeting space for the Empty Common Community Garden in 2017.

Then, our Year One students spent three weeks developing ideas for a space for the gardeners and the public to meet, hold workshops and exchange ideas.

Empty Common gardeners Charlotte Synge and Ian Cray, who initiated the brief for the ‘Common Room’, wanted help to explore the potential of the site and to support the process of gaining permissions and funding for their project.

We enjoyed the constructive collaboration with Charlotte and Ian in supporting the students’ design projects and

Cambridge Architecture 21

© Philipp Ebeling

© Julika Gittner

© Julika Gittner

First-year live project

LIVE 22 Cambridge Architecture

WORK

LEARN

www.marstanbdb.com

First-year live project

© Philipp Ebeling

© Philipp Ebeling

© Francis Fawcett

decided to explore ways of developing a brief that would allow this year’s cohort to contribute to the realisation of the building as part of their first-term live project.

The clients invited Alex Giarlis and Brigitta Lenz, from Neubau Architecture, to create an overall design that would allow sufficient freedom for the students to explore their own ideas, while tying their separate elements together to form a coherent and useful building.

The design, developed by Neubau, of a platform and roof holding five rotating and three fixed-wall elements, offered the perfect brief for our students. It allowed for a phased construction in which the students’ elements could be inserted once the rest of the structure was complete.

Having to develop their ideas through a process of feedback and exchange with the gardeners, the engineer, Simon Smith, and Neubau offered the students the opportunity to experience the complexity of collaborating

© Philipp Ebeling

“The request to use sustainable and recycled materials added an extra dimension”

LIVE

WORK

LEARN

in the design and in the making of their elements. The gardeners’ request to use mainly sustainable and recycled materials added an extra dimension to the task.

Devising innovative uses of non-traditional materials, such as making a rain screen from tin cans, and the quest to source materials second-hand – such as the scaffolding for the frame structure – kept the cost of the project to a minimum and produced surprising results.

The Urban Empty Common gardeners offered useful advice, feedback and practical assistance throughout the project, giving the students an extremely positive first experience of collaborating with a client.

Apart from being a useful asset for the gardening group, the structure will become a permanent, publicly accessible feature on the site. Our students are very proud of having contributed their hard work and imaginative ideas to realise this ambitious attempt at designing and building collaboratively for a good cause. We are all looking forward to seeing the rest of the building completed in the near future.

www.marstanbdb.com Cambridge Architecture 23

Site visit

Game of light CAA members visited the Cambridge Biomedical Campus to explore AstraZeneca’s new headquarters WORDS ANASTASIA ORPHANIDOU, 5TH STUDIO

It was a clear and fresh winter morning, right before Christmas – the perfect day to enjoy the saw-tooth-like façade of AstraZeneca’s new global headquarters, and its playful reflections.

The building, on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, will be home to about 2,000 employees as part of the new office headquarters and laboratory complex.

The tour in mid-December was guided

by Tomislav Dushanov, Herzog & DeMeuron’s project architect, and Richard Foster, AstraZeneca’s project manager, after a welcome from Sabine Jaccaud, AstraZeneca’s Director of Cambridge Communications.

The design intent was to create a cantilevered glazed disk that gradually fades into the sky, supported on three concrete blocks. It might not always be the case against the grey Great British sky, but was successfully manifested in the sunlight that morning. One of the reflections was the vital energy centre, connected by a 128m subterranean tunnel, which can easily be missed when viewed from the train, despite its grandiose scale when seen at street level.

Our first stop was the ground-floor blocks that will accommodate open-plan laboratories with contained specialised rooms. Glazed elevations overlooking the courtyard bring transparency to the research within, part of AstraZeneca’s ambition to increase the visibility of its work, while filling spaces with daylight.

24 Cambridge Architecture

Open-plan collaborative areas around perimeter will be filled with light

One striking feature was the M&E service void above the ceiling, at least 3m deep, still exposed for us to appreciate the level of coordination required for such specialised buildings. As expected, the services are what define the efficiency – and most of the budget – of this project.

The three blocks are linked by publicly accessible entrance cores accommodating the auditorium and café/restaurant. This enables secure but continuous connection of the labs while avoiding the “need to be accompanied at all times” tradition typical of science buildings. An impressive metal staircase defines the main entrance and leads to the upper floors of the building.

These two floors feature open-plan office spaces along the perimeters of each floorplate, with views into the courtyard and towards the Biomedical Campus through the white oak mullions of the façade. Meeting rooms, larger office spaces and other labs are in the central section of each floor separated with the same glazed and mullion partitioning as the façade. Expanding the building horizontally rather than vertically was intentional to better promote collaboration among peers.

The top floor features clear spans of up to 40m, possible with the trusses forming the roof profile. The roof is the most complex interface of the building. Almost every component is different, and the assembly required the coordination of various construction packages simultaneously.

Although in most areas the components were

Site visit

“Glazed elevations overlooking the courtyard bring transparency to the research within”

Roof profile formed by structural gymnastics

still exposed, the roof was complete in one room.

Overall, there seems to be limited working privacy, which is in the spirit of promoting collaboration and opening up to the public realm. The conditions of each space are adapted to its function, despite this perceived lack of separation, at least on the top floors.

A game of light, reflections and long views across and out are celebrated through striving for high-quality design and effective coordination.

Visiting AstraZeneca and getting a glimpse into the hidden details that make buildings a reality, from complicated mullion junctions to roof build-ups, was indeed a pleasure. We would like to thank Tomislav, Richard and Sabine for their hospitality and time, and we look forward to visiting the building again, once finished.

Views out from open plan office space

The inner courtyard of Herzog and de Meuron’s AstraZeneca HQ Intrepid CAA members in PPE before entering the site compound

Cambridge Architecture 25

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North Uttlesford Garden Community A new local centre, offering retail, employment and community facilities

5,000 homes, including a mix of types and sizes, and 40 per cent affordable homes

Four new primary schools and a new secondary school

Community parks, recreation and amenity space – new allotments, open space and sports facilities

New, sustainable transport links

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For and against A new community with lasting commercial and social benefit or 5,000 houses in the wrong place for the wrong reason? Susie Lober looks at the arguments for and against North Uttlesford Garden Community WORDS SUSIE LOBER WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM GROSVENOR AND STOPNUTOWN ACTION GROUP

F

or Cambridge to continue its success, it needs to maintain delivery of commercial space and improve residential affordability. Its relationship with the hinterland will become increasingly important, because it is beyond the city boundaries where the room to grow and deliver more affordable homes can be found.1 Twelve miles south of Cambridge, a new garden community of around 400ha is proposed. The development is part of the Uttlesford Local Plan, which was submitted to the Planning Inspectorate in January 2019.

North Uttlesford Garden Community is one of a string of developments proposed along the A1301 linking Saffron Walden to Cambridge. The Wellcome Trust has

Cambridge Architecture 27

© Grosvenor

North Uttlesford Garden Community

“NUGC is one of a string of developments proposed along the A1301”

submitted an outline planning application to expand its Genome Campus, which is expected to create 4,300 jobs, 1,500 new residential dwellings, community facilities and a 175-bedroom hotel. SmithsonHill, meanwhile, is promoting a 224ha AgriTech Park, currently at appeal. Individually, each proposal would significantly intensify this part of rural north Essex/south Cambridgeshire.

Is this the kind of ambitious and sustainable development that is needed to secure the future prosperity of Cambridge, or urban sprawl that threatens to cause environmental degradation, intensify segregation and undermine the vitality of Cambridge?

The integration of multifunctional landscape is at the heart of NUGC proposals

View of NUGC from the south – a site that has previously been put forward for development, and rejected

life-science industry cannot be ignored, with many science parks in the immediate vicinity expanding at pace. Centrally located within this cluster, our new community can offer a wide range of new homes, facilities and complementary employment spaces to help attract skilled workers at all levels of their career and, ultimately, support the economic growth of North Essex and South Cambridgeshire.

Its location benefits from excellent connections to the transport network, including the Cambridge to London rail

corridor, the M11/A11 strategic road network and emerging proposals for the Cambridge Autonomous Metro. More importantly, its central location within the lifescience cluster allows for the development of sustainable transport strategies to enhance public transport, cycling and walking options.

Our design ambition focuses on sensitively responding to the surrounding countryside and historic environment, while opening up private agricultural land for public use. We have established an illustrative landscape-led masterplan, and © StopNUtown

© Grosvenor

North Uttlesford Garden Community

Grosvenor’s support for the development:

Grosvenor’s enduring purpose is to deliver lasting commercial and social benefit through our development activities. We are working in partnership with four landowners, as the master developer responsible for promoting and delivering this new community. Together we are determined to create a high quality place that will leave a lasting legacy.

North Uttlesford Garden Community will contribute towards Uttlesford’s housing need by providing 5,000 new homes and up to 4,000 jobs, creating a sustainable place to live, work and play. The growth of the thriving

Clegg Construction Ltd, a subsidiary of Clegg Group Ltd, is a large construction company based in the Midlands and east of England. We are a solution-focused main contractor with extensive multi-sector project experience in Design and Build, Traditional and Framework Contracts.

Each project we undertake is completed with the same high level of professionalism and skill; with a complete emphasis on customer care.

28 Cambridge Architecture

Please contact Rachel Johns, Framework and business development manager 0792 1 471 572

© StopNUtown

North Uttlesford Garden Community

© Grosvenor

more than 90ha of publicly accessible green space. Offering opportunities for play, exploration, food growing and walking. The introduction of sustainable drainage systems will help prevent overland water flows during flood events, protect water quality, while enhancing biodiversity.

A community at this scale brings with it the chance to deliver supporting physical and social infrastructure, to serve new and nearby residents – whether through highway improvements, primary and secondary education, retail, healthcare or sports facilities.

Our aspiration is to work hand in hand with the local community to understand their desires, not only in terms of local facilities, but also to share their design ambitions to inspire a place full of architectural character.

This new place will respect the heritage of the area, while incorporating design and technological innovations over its 30-year build-out period.

StopNUtown Action Group response

This exercise in urbanising 1,000 acres of farmland goes against fundamental planning norms. The development sits at the highest elevation in the area and will be visible from miles around; it will disrupt important chalk aquifers that supply water to south Cambridgeshire and risks exacerbating flooding along the River Cam. There is also considerable archeological sensitivity, to the extent that Historic England has objected strongly.

It cannot be considered sustainable.

This will be an isolated, car-dependent dormitory serving employment around Cambridge and south to Stansted Airport and London. Rail or bus do not offer workable alternatives to the car, and the claim that 60 per cent of journeys will be made by bicycle or on foot is absurd.

The location – in the elbow of the

NUGC is sited in an area of greatest visual impact in Uttlesford district

Grosvenor’s vision includes gentle sloping routes that encourage walking and cycling; using terraced land for food growing

M11 and A11 – may look right on a map, but it won’t work in reality without massive spending on the surrounding roads, for which no funding has been earmarked or timescale established. While there is a southbound M11 junction nearby, there is no northbound access towards Cambridge (or southbound exit from the north). This forces traffic along the A1301 and A505 to junction 10 of the M11. The A505/junction 10 and A505/ A1301 intersections are already high on south Cambridgeshire’s list of traffic blackspots. The villages of Ickleton, Hinxton and Duxford are plagued by rat-running.

NUGC will have no primary shopping.

Residents will head for the medieval town of Saffron Walden, four miles along a narrow country road. To reach supermarkets will require crossing the town, along lanes where traffic pollution already exceeds legal limits.

The only alternative is to join traffic heading towards Cambridge to reach Sawston (five miles) or Cambridge city centre (15 miles), or to Haverhill (17 miles) along the notorious A1307, nicknamed ‘death alley’.

The site was first put forward by Bidwells some years ago and has previously been rejected by Uttlesford council.

That it now forms part of the Uttlesford draft Local Plan is a sad tale of political expedience and dysfunctional planning. The communities surrounding the proposed site are greatly disappointed by the poor quality of engagement offered by the district council and developer and the implausible claims that are being made to justify the site.

References 1 Savills ‘Cambridge: A city state of mind?’, September 2018

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RIBA House of the Year

Off-grid Lochside House named RIBA House of the Year 2018 Set on the edge of a lake within the Scottish west Highlands, Lochside House – by Haysom Ward Miller Architects – has been crowned the 2018 RIBA House of the Year.

Architect Tom Miller talks about the challenges faced to create the effortlessly designed house that integrates into the woodland areas of the highlands WORDS TOM MILLER, DIRECTOR, HAYSOM WARD MILLER

30 Cambridge Architecture

© Richard Fraser

© Richard Fraser

© Client's own

RIBA House of the Year

W

Excellence in Engineering

© Richard Fraser

© Richard Fraser

© Haysom Ward Miller

e all know the everyday frustrations of our job: when the planners don’t agree with our reading of what a site really needs; when our client wants us to cram in more accommodation than a site can comfortably take; when the budget is so tight that the last crucial bit of joy gets cut; when the M+E engineer insists a building can’t work unless it’s filled with trunking; and when the contractor doesn’t build it quite as you intended.

However good we are as architects, we all know we’re only one part of what it takes to make a successful building.

Lochside House was an example of what, I suspect, many of us feel we could achieve if only all those other things fell into line – the planners liked it, the client was on the same wavelength, and the contractor was willing to work through the considerable practical difficulties of the site to make it happen.

The end result, I hope, is a building worthy of them all and of this rare opportunity. At some point, I must have unwittingly entered into some architectural Faustian pact – for once, it seems, the stars did align.

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CAMBRIDGE

Regulation

What will B the future?

WORDS NICK KENDALL, LOCAL AUTHORITY BUILDING CONTROL

In May 2017 (CA73), this magazine featured an article about the 350th anniversary of the London Rebuilding Act of 1667, which aimed to improve the standard of buildings constructed after the Great Fire of London. Who could have known that less than a month later – on 14 June 2017 – the Grenfell Tower tragedy would occur, and that contemporary industry practices would be found to have contributed to it?

The guidance and definitions in Approved Document B are sufficiently imprecise that different understandings can be reached. As in 1667, the need for change has been recognised.

Dame Judith Hackitt led the inquiry into Grenfell Tower and published Building a Safer Future – Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety: Final Report in May 2018. In its 150 or so pages, she makes recommendations for the future.

Dame Judith observed that the construction industry had participated in a ‘rush to the bottom’.

She dislikes terms such as ‘value engineering’, which she says is a euphemism for cost cutting, and believes that ‘design and build’ does not encourage careful, considered and controlled design.

‘The mindset of doing things as cheaply as possible and passing on responsibility for problems and shortcomings to others must stop.

Everyone’s focus must be on doing the right things because it is their responsibility as part of a system which provides buildings that are safe and sustainable for those who will live in and use them for many decades.’

Dame Judith Hackitt Dame Judith believes regulatory services should not exist in a competitive market and that compliance should be about quality, not price.

Consequently, her recommendations include having a Joint Competent Authority (JCA) comprising the Health and Safety Executive, Local Authority Building Control (LABC) and the Fire Service. The suggestion is that the JCA will be responsible for all high-rise residential buildings (HRRBs) – buildings of more than 10 storeys – but this scope is rapidly changing to high-risk buildings, which are likely also to include hospitals, residential

schools, hotels and nursing homes. A duty holder will need to ensure compliance throughout the life of the building.

Dame Judith has also recommended various ‘gateways’ that must be achieved before moving forward on a project. This approach will redefine how buildings are designed, creating opportunities to take stock and ensure that they are progressing correctly.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is working on a new Approved Document, which is expected to be published this year. It has already released a new circular, now in force, banning combustible cladding on buildings that are more than 18m high.

‘My focus is to create a better system for the future which will be easier to work with, deliver better solutions everywhere and rebuild confidence.’

Dame Judith Hackitt The hope is that this focus will bring new clarity to our industry. We are certainly keen to play our part, with the readers of Cambridge Architecture, in being responsible for the safety of people in Cambridgeshire.

Cambridge Architecture 33

© Mike O'Dwyer

CFCI

From Passivhaus to Lego Simon Smith, incoming chair of the Cambridge Forum for the Construction Industry, is in the hot seat for this issue’s Q&A

Q. For those unfamiliar with the organisation, what is the CFCI? Simon Smith (SS): The Cambridge Forum for the Construction Industry was set up in 1980 by a group of built environment professionals working in and around Cambridge, who came together around the building of Robinson College.

They identified that the city needed a multidisciplinary body to disseminate information relating to design, procurement, commissioning and construction. The first chairman was Peter

Dann and the founding members were Roger Bailey, Victor Bugg, Peter Dann, E English, Peter Hall, J Horwood-Smart, Ivor Jordan, Vernon McElroy, Nigel Neville, Maurice Pleasance, Christopher Pratt and David Thurlow – many names that are still familiar today.

The objectives of the CFCI are stated on our website and quite comprehensive, covering issues such as education, networking, research and philanthropy. My favourite CFCI objective is ‘to develop and maintain friendly relations… among… the construction industry’.

Q. Who are the key personnel?

SS: Trustees of the CFCI represent the membership and wider construction industry.

In that respect, we have architects, engineers, contractors, surveyors, planners, developers, clients, and lawyers appointed as trustees. Our aim is to ensure that all disciplines are represented, in a balanced way, without over-representation from particular professions.

The CFCI chair changes every two years and, this month, Colin Brown (Carter Jonas) will be

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© Jestico + Whiles

CFCI

CFCI Annual Debate ‘This house believes Cambridge can go car free’ Eddington, winner of the Cambridge Design and Construction Awards ‘Best New Neighbourhood’ and ‘Sustainability & Engineering’ categories last year handing over to me. We also have a secretary and treasurer, roles that Rob Ransom (ex-PBA) and Stephen Terrell (Coulsons) have filled for many years. Trustees David Emond (RH Partnership) and Meredith Bowles (Mole) organise the annual Cambridge Construction and Design Awards with the city council, and Emma Fletcher (Smithson Hill) is our resident Twitter expert.

Other trustees are: James Abraham (Bidwells), Bob Ensch (Morgan Sindall), Colin Jones (Hewitsons), Stephen Walsh (Unex), Peter Northmore (Northmore Associates), Alison Wring (Aecom), Gavin Heaphy (Cambridge University) and Steve Sillery (ex-Bidwells).

Q. The CFCI organises quite a few activities throughout the year – what were the main achievements of 2018?

SS: We organised 22 events, including talks, site visits, our annual dinner, garden party and the Cambridge Design and Construction Awards evening. The Lego competition is now firmly re-established after a period of absence, thanks to Emma Fletcher and Stephen Terrell.

Particular events that inspired me were the Cambridge Mosque site visit and the evening talk on the Cambridge to Oxford Growth Corridor.

Tom Holbrook’s images of new development in the countryside looked totally different from what I imagined and reminded me of Will Alsop’s vision of turning Barnsley into a Tuscan hill town.

Q. The CFCI held a debate in late January on the future of Cambridge as a ‘car-free’ city – what prompted this?

SS: We have had a number of talks over the past few years on plans for new transport systems for Cambridge, the most ambitious being an underground railway. A past CFCI talk challenged my understanding of Cambridge’s rush-hour gridlock – it’s always worse during school term

One of the CFCI’s regular evening lectures focused on the new Cavendish Laboratory for the University of Cambridge

clear – but the future will look different. It will be quieter and cleaner, whether cars stay or not.

time, but car numbers don’t increase significantly – it’s just that the tipping point is reached.

Electrification of transport and driverless cars are regular features in the news. With our creaking power network in Cambridge (explained in a recent CFCI talk) one might think that electrifying our transport in Cambridge makes the problem worse – but perhaps our cars will be the mobile power stations of the future. It’s a very exciting time.

The future for cars in our cities is certainly not

Q. What can we look forward to in the coming months?

SS: This year will be busy for the CFCI. Several long-serving trustees – Steve Sillery, Rob Ransom, Stephen Terrell and Stephen Walsh – will be stepping down. At the AGM, we will announce new trustees, including two ‘next generation’ appointments – younger trustees who will broaden our reach. The CFCI is keen to see more new and recent recruits to the construction industry at our evening talks and site visits.

Our collaboration with Form the Future will also start in 2019. Trustees Bob Ensch and Stephen Terrell have been instrumental in establishing this educational link, with CFCI providing significant grant funding.

One of the must-attend talks of this year's calendar is 'The Grenfell Tower disaster: What have we learned', on 13 May. The Hackitt review has already resulted in significant change to our regulations, with a total ban on combustible construction in certain situations.

I am also looking forward to the King’s College Cranmer Road Passivhaus talk and site visit. This is Cambridge city’s first major Passivhaus development, creating a series of buildings that are being fully wrapped in insulation – including the foundations – and building high levels of airtight construction.

Cambridge Architecture 35

© Swann Edwards Architecture

NCSA Passivhaus office, Guyhirn, by Swann Edwards Architecture

Look north Introducing the North Cambridgeshire Society of Architects (NCSA), the revitalised branch of RIBA East covering Fenland, Huntingdonshire and Peterborough WORDS LUKE BUTCHER, CHAIR, NORTH CAMBRIDGESHIRE SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTS

North Cambridgeshire is home to more than 470,000 people and, like the rest of the county, is forecast to undergo tremendous growth in the coming decades.

Covering Fenland, Huntingdonshire and Peterborough, more than 24,000 new homes are planned in the region by 2036, with notable proposals including: 5,300 new homes at the Great Haddon urban extension in Peterborough; 5,000 at Alconbury Weald, near Huntingdon; and 3,100 near March. A further 12,000 new homes could be provided in Wisbech if the bid to develop a new garden town, recently submitted under the Garden Communities programme, is successful.

This ambitious growth should present enormous potential for architects in the region; however, anecdotal evidence suggests there is limited access into projects – large or small – for local practices. Furthermore, the current quality of the built environment across north Cambridgeshire is arguably inferior compared with other parts of the county or wider region. Comparisons between

36 Cambridge Architecture

the civic ambition shown in Cambridge at new sites such as Eddington (north-west Cambridge) and new developments in Peterborough, such as Hampton or Fletton Quays, lay bare a stark difference in approach.

While awards are not the only measure of a place’s success, a review of RIBA award-winning projects in the Eastern region between 1966 and 2018 highlights the disparity in quality placemaking between north and south Cambridgeshire. In that time, five buildings in Fenland, Huntingdonshire and Peterborough have won awards, compared with 59 in Cambridge, east Cambridgeshire or south Cambridgeshire, including three Stirling Prizewinning schemes in and around Cambridge, and one that was shortlisted.

Local branches are the heart and soul of RIBA, connecting architects with the communities in which they live and work. In Cambridge, the Cambridge Association of Architects (CAA) gives the local industry a strong voice to promote the importance of architects and design quality. Previously, the RIBA Huntingdon and Peterborough Chapter of Architects (HPCA) had carried out similar activities.

Sadly, though, the days of hosting sold-out lectures

by Sir Terry Farrell at Peterborough Cathedral were fading into distant memory.

The branch was in need of fresh impetus to meet the challenges presented in a rapidly growing region. In November 2018, it was replaced and rebranded as the North Cambridgeshire Society

of Architects (NCSA), which was launched to address this imbalance and bring the same level of positive industry representation to the north of the county.

The NCSA will seek to champion architects working in Fenland, Huntingdonshire and Peterborough, promoting the important role that architects can play in shaping future places. The ‘three pillars’ of RIBA’s Advancing Architecture strategy (2016-2020) – a strong profession, a strong voice and a strong organisation – are being used to shape the future direction of the branch.

Support for re-forming the branch has been given

by RIBA East, with advice from the Manchester Society of Architects, which is keen to share its lessons from repositioning in recent years. This spirit of collaboration is key and the NCSA will look to work with other branches – including the CAA – on joint initiatives and projects.

Despite some of the challenges outlined, practices within the branch area were already beginning to get wider recognition for the work they are doing – not only from within the architectural profession, but also from a wider audience. Recent success stories include Swann Edwards Architecture, named Small Business of the Year in the 2018 Fenland Enterprise Business Awards, and my own practice, Butcher Bayley Architects, finalists for Small Business of the Year in the 2018 Huntingdonshire Business Awards.

The NCSA will look to build upon individual success

©Matthew Smith

© DT Architects

NCSA

Pumping station, Yaxley, by Butcher Bayley Architects

AB Agri headquarters, Peterborough, by DT Architects

©Graham Handley Architects

“The NCSA will champion architects and their role in shaping places” stories and hopes to raise the profile of more local architects.

The society is confident that – through a concerted effort, led by local architects – the quality of the built environment and prospects for practices in North Cambridgeshire can be positively transformed.

To keep up to date with the latest developments, follow @NCSArchitects on Twitter and Instagram.

©Maciek Platek

Eagle Mill, St Ives, by Graham Handley Architects

Eaton Socon Preschool, Eaton Socon, by Devlin Architects

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© Mole Architects

Work in progress New social housing for Cambridge Mole is currently looking at option studies for an edge-of-town site to be developed for social housing, with each home designed to have high natural daylight levels, and views of nearby parkland.

Two-storey courtyard homes are on the southern boundary of the site and protect the shared gardens from a busy A-road.

A shared-surface street runs along the west of the site, with terraces of deckaccess apartments splayed to create spaces in between, alternately active car parking courts and shared gardens with private patios and balconies.

The angled layout of terraces of apartments opens up the shared garden to views of a nature reserve beyond, maximising connections to green space from the apartments.

Dual-aspect apartments are accessed via balcony decks on the shady northern side, with living spaces and other habitable rooms all facing south to capture sunlight.

Christ’s Hospital School

© NRAP Architects

Christ’s Hospital School, in Horsham, West Sussex, is a Grade II*-listed campus designed by Aston Webb.

NRAP’s new building provides a stateof-the-art food catering facility and nutrition department.

The new building is integrated in the existing complex of listed buildings, and construction is phased to ensure facilities can remain operational. The building is centred on two significant new external spaces: one an entrance court with improved public realm, the other a more private place serving the surrounding buildings.

Proposals involved removing a large part of the listed building, as well as major improvements to the existing infrastructure, services and landscaping.

38 Cambridge Architecture

CAA projects

© Saunders Boston Architects

St Columba’s reborn

Extension of Waterbeach primary school

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© Mooi Architects

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The new development, designed by Saunders Boston, includes a two-storey teaching block extension, consisting of 12 classrooms, a group room and an inspirational learning street, an improved and extended main entrance, revised landscape and general refurbishment, including interior design to the existing school.

The new contemporary extension has been designed with a bold theme purposely intended for the pupils – coloured-glazed bricks inserted within the light grey facing brickwork reveal windows to replicate the seven colours of the rainbow. The design is intended to offer the children a sense of place when viewing the building and giving the school a sense of excitement, enthusiasm and a splash of colour.

Archangel is currently working with Downing Place United Reformed Church (formerly St Columba’s) on an extensive refurbishment.

While the building enjoys a prominent corner position, access is poor, the rear halls are all but invisible from the street, and internal circulation is convoluted.

The works include a new visible, accessible entrance on Downing Place and new windows bringing life to the Downing Street façade with views into a new ‘narthex’; further back. A new central hub is created with a reinstated courtyard garden and a suite of new meeting spaces are also planned.

The scheme is expected to be completed by September 2020.

Dovecote restoration Having been granted planning and listed building consent last year, MOOi is developing detailed proposals for the restoration and conversion of a Grade II-listed dovecote, housed in the curtilage of a Grade II*-listed farmhouse in Cambridgeshire.

The proposed additions are to be clad with an open jointed charred-cedar cladding, offering a visual continuation alongside the existing horizontal feather-edged boarding separated by a frameless glazed link, helping to define the new elements against the existing historic fabric. The project is set to start on site in the summer.

Cambridge Architecture 39

Refurbishment of Old House Kitchens Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

Transforming

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