Cambridge Architecture CA80

80 Cambridge Architecture

Autumn/Winter 2020

A sustainable future

Hope for the high street Reinventing the retail experience

Rethinking education The future of school design

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Contents

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Contents 4-5 News

20-21 A cup of ambition

7-9 Sustainability post-Covid

23-25 Revising the lesson plan

Market Square project restarts; Northstowe sales suite is fully recyclable; seminars a hit

Anthony Cooper asks if we are applying our retrofitting efforts wisely

The workplace mantra of nine to five is changing.

Mark Richards examines how

Schools have been seriously challenged by the Covid crisis. Mark Clarke considers their future

10-11 Adapting to crisis

26-27 Paths to success

What has been the impact of the pandemic on staff, clients, operations and projects?

We showcase two alternative routes of qualification on offer for would-be architects

13-15 The future of retail

29 Fit for purpose

16-17 Class acts

30-31 Work in progress

Prop tech enterprise Sook is reimagining physical shops to benefit retailers, landlords – and the planet

The RIBA recognises outstanding talent at three schools of architecture across the East

19 Return to the high point

Cambridge Architecture Cambridge Architecture is a review produced by the Cambridge Association of Architects, the local branch 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 Any comments or for a copy of the magazine, contact editors@cambridgearchitects.org EDITORS David Adams, Tom Foggin, Susie Lober ADVERTISEMENT SALES Marie Luise CritchleyWaring (advertising@cambridgearchitects.org) Published by CPL

How do we design homes that are healthy on every front? Nick Kendall offers advice www.cpl.co.uk

A record number of entries in this edition reflects the diversity and resilience of local practices, as we present a round-up of the projects Cambridgebased architects are working on

Bobby Open asks why we don’t demand the same quality of flats today as we did in the 1930s

The CAA thanks the following sponsors AC Architects Cambridge Ltd BB&C Architects Limited BCR Infinity Architects Caroe Architecture Ltd Colen Lumley RIBA Cowper Griffith Architects DaltonMuscat Architects LLP Dr James P McQuillan, RIBA EIKON Architecture and Design

Emma Adams Architect George Davidson Architect Haysom Ward Miller M Reynolds RIBA Mart Barrass Architect Ltd Mole Architects Mrs P Phillipson Neale Associates NP Architects Peter Rawlings Architects Ltd

PJ Lawlor R H Partnership Architects Ltd Richard Goy Architect Robert Hatt Simon Blackburn RIBA Studio 24 Architects

CA80 was supported by a generous donation from the Cambridge Forum for the Construction Industry and made possible with funds from the RIBA East Local Initiative Fund

Cambridge Architecture 3

News and events

News Cambridge’s Perpendicular Architecture through to final phase of home competition Cambridge based practice Perpendicular Architecture has emerged from more than 200 international entrants to reach the final phase of the Home of 2030 competition (www.homeof2030.com).

Collaborating with consultants changebuilding (engineering and sustainability) and humblebee (Passivhaus and MEP) to form The Positive+Collective, they will submit detailed designs alongside five other finalists.

Director Patrick Usborne explains: ‘The Positive+Collective has a mission to design homes and communities that meet the combined challenges of the housing crisis and climate emergency, while also creating healthy and inclusive living.’

For the first phase of the competition, their experience was enhanced by experts at Arup in smart building systems, COCIS on

When we started curating the articles for CA80, we weren’t sure if it would even go ahead given the circumstances.

We recall that in our welcome in the last issue we wrote of ‘tumultuous times’ but even now those words seem innocent given the past six months.

In this issue, we’re looking at the new combination of challenges facing designers today, and how we are responding to them. Mark Clarke, from chadwick dryer clarke studio, looks at how school design is responding to health and environmental challenges with adaptability at the core; Margherita Cesca, of Saunders Boston, talks to John Hoyle, of Sook, about the future of retail; Bobby Open looks at the past – and future – of housing standards; Mark Richards examines the changing face of the idea of Live/ Work; and we showcase the student awards, alongside our usual features.

In times like these, it’s easy to let each new crisis consume us, but it’s also important to remember that there are plenty of actions that we can take that make a real and lasting difference to our surroundings. High standards of design, sustainability, creativity and consideration for the occupant and the surrounding community should be at the core of what we do.

The skill of the architect is in bringing expertise and people together to form a solution greater than the sum of its parts. That has been – and remains – one of the architect’s strongest assets, and one that should help our various communities triumph through the challenges of the day.

The editors

4 Cambridge Architecture

© Perpendicular Architecture

Welcome

bio-based and home-grown materials, and ECOSystems on emerging material, innovation in manufacturing, and delivery.

Perpendicular Architecture’s vision for 2030 is to regain an equilibrium: to actively restore and regenerate our planet and build places for people to reconnect with each other.

Its proposal, Positive+House, is not looking simply to minimise negative impacts but to maximise our positive contribution to society and the environment. Using home-grown Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), it adopts regenerative offsite design solutions in response to the increasingly urgent issue of climate change and biodiversity loss and the social challenges of our time, while also being cost effective.

The final result of the competition is scheduled to be announced in late November.

We wish the team the very best of luck.

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Cover photos Pandemic Workplace – working in Cambridge during the coronavirus outbreak

1 Samantha Greaves 2 Liz Miller 3 Anon 4 David Adams 5 Anon 6 Ben Pulford

7 Hugh Craft 8 Tonia Gkougkouli 9 Natalie Matanda 10 Aimée Daffarn 11 Conrad Areta 12 Mark Richards

13 Barry Sharman 14 Graham Handley 15 Tom Foggin 16 Ian Harvey 17 Anon 18 Ze’ev Feigis 19 Anon

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© Phynart Studio, iStock

© Simon Bray

News and events

New apprenticeship programme launched in Cambridge 100% recyclable sales suite at Northstowe

Council decides Market Square project is priority The Cambridge Market Square project has restarted after being on hold since March 2020, as a result of the Covid restrictions and to allow the council to complete a comprehensive spending review.

In recognition of the market and market square’s importance to the city’s economic recovery post-Covid, the council spending review concluded that the market square is a corporate priority and should continue as planned.

This follows the Stage 1: Feasibility Assessment report and stakeholder workshops held in January and February this year. Stage 2 Concept Design will take place over the

autumn and winter period, led by Mace Group; with specialist support from LDA Design and independent retail market development consultants, Quarterbridge.

The consultancy team will be developing a proposed vision and concept design for the market square and helping the council secure the required investment to complete the remaining detailed design and construction stages of the project.

For regular market square project updates, please refer to the following webpage: https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/marketsquare-redevelopment

AECOM has been commissioned by the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service, on behalf of Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire District Councils, to prepare a housing delivery study.

The study began its first stage of engagement with housebuilders, developers, planning agents, estate agents, and the construction industry in September 2020, with follow-up interviews and workshops planned.

Get involved, urges CAA © Alphotographic, iStock

Housebuilder House by Urban Splash has built a 100% recyclable structure that radically rethinks how a modern sales suite should be constructed and used.

Guy Ackernley, residential director, says: ‘The pavilion is part of our mission to do things differently, and continually raise the bar.’

Its structural components are prefabricated and can be delivered by a single truck and assembled in under a week. It can remain in situ for up to five years with standalone Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) structures that can be fully retrofitted and repurposed, or disassembled and rebuilt in a new location.

The pavilion is open at Northstowe. Viewings can be booked online at housebyurbansplash. co.uk but must be made in advance because of additional safety restrictions on numbers in place.

As you will read (p26-27), there are diverse routes to qualification including more part-time courses and, more recently, apprenticeships.

The CAA welcomes the introduction of a new Architectural Apprenticeship programme at the Department of Architecture here in Cambridge.

Launching this autumn, 18 students have enrolled on the Part 2 / Part 3 apprenticeship. We look forward to seeing how the programme grows and flourishes in the years to come, and hope to support the course and students as they develop their professional experience.

The department is also working to reduce the financial burden on students by providing materials for model-making and loaning drawing boards to all students in the first year, where hand-drawing is admirably still taught as an important skill. In lieu of awarding a 2020 Second Year prize – made challenging by the drastic change to online evaluation for all students – the CAA has donated funds to support the purchase of drawing boards, and we wish the first year students every success in their studies.

Housing delivery study begins

Feel like no-one in politics is listening? Get the sense that sustainability, housing and communities are being forgotten about in the midst of multiple crises? Then help the CAA and get involved.

The CAA currently has several vacancies on its committee, because of a combination of factors, not least the pandemic. Fill the gap, volunteer and make a difference! It’s an opportunity to meet the movers and shakers of the industry; encourage local politicians, stakeholders, investors, business people and contractors to up their game, and not forget one crisis when in the middle of another.

Email secretary@ cambridgearchitects.org or send a tweet to @RIBACambridge

Seminars continue to impress The CAA’s sustainability seminars (now online) have been a huge success – supported and created by the determination and energy of the members.

Even during the pandemic, and despite shifting to an online format, the seminars have gone from strength to strength, covering a diverse range of topics and techniques.

For more information, or to get involved, please contact the CAA – email secretary@cambridgearchitects.org or send us a tweet @RIBACambridge

Cambridge Architecture 5

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Retrofit housing

Sustainability in a post-Covid world Architects often talk about retrofitting and improving existing buildings, but, asks Anthony Cooper, are we applying our efforts wisely, or do we need to think bigger?

© Anthony Cooper

WORDS ANTHONY COOPER

By way of introduction, I design carbon-positive homes for clients (where carbon is stored in the materials used for construction). I work primarily for well-off clients who are often less interested in a low-carbon environment and tend to look to offsite manufacture for quality and assurance of price. That said, I have always maintained a keen interest in retrofitting existing houses.

I occasionally dabble in the ‘additions and alterations’ market and I am certainly not divorced from its consequences.

Central to my thought process is that we are not going to retrofit houses without government incentives: the lower down the economic ladder you are, the more likely it is that your home was poorly designed or constructed; compounded by the fact that this applies equally to new-build houses. Typical retrofits are essentially perverse, offering up short-term solutions that can often do more harm than good.

I once asked Grand Designs’ Kevin McCloud what he’d suggest when it came to retrofitting old housing stock. He replied without blinking, ‘Curtains. Heavy curtains.’ Although he had offered a succinct answer and one that was refreshingly simple, it seemed to over-simplify the problem.

Schemes to upgrade housing stock are

typically aimed at the elderly or economically deprived. Looking at the socio-economic standing of people may well be a good place to start but retrofitting needs to encompass everyone.

One thing is for certain, we are not going to control nor change the minds of those who want their radiators turned up to tropical, or those who scoff at people who do. We live in a time of opposites and pointing fingers at one another will only polarise society even more.

Just think of Brexit or the current 2020 US presidential elections.

And what about the role of the architect in this debate? We always look to upgrade the envelope of the home or add technology as an intelligent solution. These are, if done correctly,

“We should ensure our energy systems and devices are ‘plug and play’”

fantastic ways to upgrade our building stock. That said, this affects only a very small percentage of properties and is relatively meaningless when looking at climate change as a whole.

Part of the problem

When you see the word retrofit, I challenge you to look at it in terms of infrastructure. What we can do now and what will be possible in the future.

We are already in a state of flux when it comes to climate change, and we can exploit the already world-changing Covid-19 pandemic to help refocus the national debate on a bold solution, one we can all get behind: legislation, not grants and incentivised schemes.

We, as architects, need to accept that we are part of the problem. We wrap clients’ homes in airtight polymer shells, and enable the installation of the cheapest heating and ventilation systems because of cost-engineering or budgetary constraints and then wash our hands of the issue.

We’ve had too many years of badly designed retrofits and new-builds creating unhealthy working and living conditions and the health of the occupants is not often considered an essential part of the solution.

We need to be humble and to listen and learn: we are not ideally placed to lead. Although

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Retrofit housing

“We can't export our way out of this, either financially or morally” we think we can put our hands to everything, there are others out there who are better placed than us to offer practical solutions in this debate.

Positive start

© Anthony Cooper

Cheap energy may well be the way to achieve this over time. Cheap, clean energy – and efficient ways to store it. We are on course for a number of energy problems, including a shortage of electricity for all those ‘green’ cars.

And what about the unhealthy materials found in the manufacture of the energy and devices, never mind their disposal? We can’t export our way out of this, either financially or morally. Shortterm ‘green’ solutions are sweeping the carbon problem under the proverbial carpet. The electric car is, initially at least, making things worse, not better.

We can look to other counties like Germany who have, for more than a decade, mixed hydrogen into their gas supplies as a short-term ‘green gas’ solution while looking at the potential for hydrogen-only solutions in the future. This is not the sole answer obviously, but it tackles the problem head on in terms of emissions, and uses existing infrastructure to do so. It is a positive start.

8 Cambridge Architecture

As with all low-carbon, carbon-neutral and carbon-positive ideals we should look to lifecycles, recyclability and cradle-to-cradle solutions, too. When it comes to technology on the microscale, we should ensure that our energy systems and devices are ‘plug and play’.

These plug-in elements could be solar panels,

heat-pumps or batteries, for example. Current components can then be swapped out in future years for better, more efficient solutions.

Lobby parliament

Governments should only allow architects to specify – and occupants to utilise – solutions

© Anthony Cooper

Retrofit housing

for insulation and technology upgrades is an interesting start in our Covid-19 world as it does not look at your income or your age in order to access it. It is not, however, without its flaws. Like all schemes of this type, those who most need it are the least likely to access it and will be most exposed to fraudulent schemes and exploitation.

© Anthony Cooper

that can be recycled, upcycled or reused; or even returned to the environment. A Baufritz house, for instance, offers an excellent quality compost. Yes, our houses can be composted at the end of their lives. Our insulation, for example, is cradle-tocradle certified.

The current government’s £5,000 scheme

The solution, I would propose, lies in creating a scheme that is automatically accessed by all: one that circumvents the issue of socioeconomic standing or age as a barrier to accessing the scheme.

Architects, this is where we can be most effective now: by lobbying our government in a fair and responsible manner through the RIBA and other similar bodies. This is where we can make a difference. As our energy becomes greener, ultimately, we cannot ‘waste’ it. Its production is carbon neutral and it can be stored efficiently. It positively affects every home and building, not just those who can afford it. We can achieve this by upgrading and retrofitting the National Grid, not the individual home.

Then, and only then, can we have a true debate about retrofitting in the architectural sense. One that is not about sustainability alone. The retrofitting debate then becomes about making our homes healthy, and not about how much energy they waste. This is where we can make an actual difference. And we, as architects, can refocus and start this revolution now.

Anthony Cooper is Design Director for The House Designers, the inhouse architects for Baufritz (UK). He studied architecture at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and has been working as an architect in Cambridge since 2000.

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Covid response

Adapting to crisis © Feilden+Mawson

WORDS SUSIE LOBER

The World Health Organization officially categorised Covid-19 as a global pandemic on March 11. At the time of writing, more than 35 million cases and more than one million related fatalities have been confirmed worldwide.

The impact of the novel coronavirus on the economy, everyday life and human interaction, has been more far-reaching and devastating than many could imagine when the first known case was reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.

On 23 March 2020, Boris Johnson told us we ‘must’ stay at home and certain businesses must close. While lockdown restrictions were eased over the summer, as we move into winter cases are rising again.

To control the spread of Covid-19, practices are now working from home where possible, prominent international, regional, and local events have been postponed or cancelled, and colleges, universities, and schools are delivering many classes online.

Cambridge Architecture asked several companies to describe the impact of Covid-19 on their staff, clients, office operations, and projects.

Coulson Building Group ‘On Tuesday 24 March, Coulson Building Group temporarily closed its office, all sites and projects. In the two weeks prior to the closure, we put in place significant and increased resources to facilitate remote working allowing us to continue with tendering, bid writing, approving and paying our supply chain and employees.

‘Measures were put in place to ensure all live construction sites were safe and secure. Then, following extensive planning, we were able to reopen the main office and various sites commencing 18 May. Covid-19 risk assessments were put in place and additional protocols to ensure we can work safely while Covid-19 remains a potential risk.’

Promoting good mental health

© Coulson Building Group

Most construction sites were shut

Feilden+Mawson made use of its empty office building to show support for NHS workers

Additional measures put in place to stay safe on construction site

Feilden+Mawson LLP ‘During the recent lockdown, Feilden+Mawson has been implementing new and interesting ways to promote good mental health. When lockdown began, we utilised our empty office by giving it an NHS makeover and, since then, we have continued to set fun and exciting challenges to keep us engaged and reflect our overall core values.

‘Some of these activities included promoting the importance of Mental Health Awareness Week, sharing our green fingers during National Gardening Week, and competing in daily riddles.

We have also been enjoying sharing all of the new hobbies and activities we have undertaken since this new normal began, including, baking, birdbox building and, of course, a barbecue or two.’

Smith and Wallwork Ltd 50 St Andrews Street, Cambridge, CB2 3AH www.smithandwallwork.com 01223 750 249 contact@smithandwallwork.com 10 Cambridge Architecture

© rhp

© Lo Marketing

Covid response

Juggling childcare, home-schooling and work Lo Marketing ‘For me, it was largely business as usual. I have been home based for several years providing freelance marketing services to architects. The notable exception was that, during lockdown, I had two young children at home – one pre-school and the other at primary school.

‘Alongside running RIBA practice clinics, I was working with clients who, very sensibly, wanted to use lockdown to double down on their marketing efforts and tackle long overdue projects such as updating their websites.

Balancing this with the challenges of childcare and home-schooling was challenging. I cared for my family, I looked after my neighbours, I learnt to cut hair!’

RHP shares a variety of home-working settings

Balancing home-working with home-schooling in a hive of creativity

Feilden+Mawson promotes mental health awareness

© Ben Pulford Architects Ltd.

Helping the manufacture of face shields for NHS and keyworkers Saunders Boston Architects ‘Saunders Boston Architects has been extremely busy and particularly proactive on several fronts.

‘Immediately after the virus started to spread, we donated our 3D printer to a group of volunteers in Chatteris manufacturing face shields for key NHS workers and others on the front line. In response to the challenges of re-opening schools under new Covid-safe guidelines, we collaborated with Oxbury to offer an action plan of possible interventions for Cambridgeshire County Council to implement.

The practice is also in the process of developing an innovative vision for an office space focusing on wellbeing, health and safety post Covid-19.’

I’ve been self-isolating for eight years!

Sole practitioner Ben Pulford retreated to his garden ‘cabin’

Ben Pulford ‘I work from home, so I’ve pretty much been self-isolating for the past eight years! Prior to working here, I worked at the back of the house – but my wife wanted me out of the house (actually – I wanted me out of the house too).

‘I’ve built a ‘cabin’ in my garden – an exact cube measuring 2 x 2 x 2m. It’s made of 200mm solid insulation, comprising four layers of 50mm thick rigid insulation sheets. Excluding the purpose-made door and window, it cost me approximately £750 in materials and my time. The only power tool I used was a 25-year-old electric drill. The only other tools were a saw, a hammer, a paint-brush and a bread-knife (!)’

Cambridge Architecture 11

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© Sook

Changing retail

A digital canvas allows people to customise their design online, select a furniture layout and take a virtual tour

The future of retail The competition for sales between the high street and online was won a long time ago. In a post-Covid world, what is the future for physical retail? Margherita Cesca, senior design architect, talks to John Hoyle, founder of the prop tech enterprise Sook WORDS MARGHERITA CESCA, SENIOR ARCHITECT AT SAUNDERS BOSTON, JOHN HOYLE, FOUNDER AND CEO AT SOOK

C

esca’s experience of retail ranges from Versace on 5th Avenue to a juice bar in Northern Italy. She has a strong interest in sustainability and innovation and for several years has also been involved with Judge Business School in Cambridge mentoring young entrepreneurs. Sook is a Cambridgebased company reimagining physical retail in a way that benefits retailers, landlords, communities, and the planet.

Margherita Cesca (MC): What motivated you to get into retail and start Sook?

John Hoyle (JH): Have you ever had that feeling of déjà vu when you walk into a shopping centre or down a high street? The same multinational chains with the same shop fronts and an ever-increasing number

of empty units. Who are these shops supposed to serve? Why doesn’t my high street reflect our local community? Where's the creativity?

MC: What are the challenges for retailers, small businesses and start-ups?

JH: The problem becomes immediately clear for anyone who has ever tried to operate their own space. High rents, high rates, dated shops, high fitout costs, and inflexible leases. Together, these create an unsustainable model and our high streets and shopping centres are stark proof that people have given up.

MC: How detrimental has Covid-19 been to retail, and will it recover?

JH: Covid-19 has brought a lot of these underlying issues to the surface and has created urgency around the need

to ‘save the high street’. A rates holiday was introduced at the beginning of the pandemic along with a short-term relaxation of the use-class system. However, with nearly 14,000 high-street stores being forced to close this year, 25% more than in the same period of 2019, these measures appear to be too little too late. Action was required long before the pandemic.

MC: How has Sook addressed these issues?

JH: Rather than wait for the system to change, Sook has sought to cut out all of these barriers by creating Sook Spaces.

A Sook Space is a digitally enabled space rentable by the hour for a fixed fee. The digital canvas allows people to customise their design online, select from a number of furniture layouts and take a virtual tour through the space. The design is then

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Changing retail

automatically activated at the time of booking.

Put simply, it’s a shop that anyone can book, at any time, from anywhere. In fact, if you have £30 in your bank account, you can book yourself a slot in our Cambridge store faster than you could read this article. This level of flexibility and accessibility maximises the utility of shops so they provide value throughout the whole day.

implement a Sook as it is for our customers to operate one.

The modular design for fitout of a Sook Space to allow maximum flexibility and minimum waste

MC: How is Sook helping retail become more sustainable?

JH: Traditional retail fitouts are incredibly wasteful with each new tenant wanting to strip out old designs and create their own temporary space. Taking a conservative view that each new fitout produces one skip of waste, if Sook were to have two occupiers per day the potential offset of each space is massive; this doesn’t even begin to account for the carbon cost in producing building materials.

We are also exploring a number of sustainable finishes. At The Grafton, we used Graphenstone paint, which absorbs CO2 from the ambient air cleaning the air, and we are looking into using Ocra board, made from recycled ocean plastics, on our new modular units.

Sook has recently begun the process

© Sook

MC: How did you approach your first space in Cambridge?

JH: It had been vacant for three years. We revitalised it with a lick of paint, domestic screens fixed to the walls and rented the space out for £10 an hour across the board. We proved that if you remove the commercial barriers to the occupation of shops people will use them. The space caught the attention of Legal & General who gave us the opportunity to open our second space in The Grafton.

MC: How have the Sook Spaces developed since your first site?

JH: In The Grafton, we built a more advanced solution incorporating adjustable lighting, furniture and audio. The space opened our eyes to a number of possibilities that a Sook Space can be used for: events, wellness, auctions, studio, independent retail, live music, exhibitions, online brands, product demos, community, hobbies, and much more.

We have recently opened our third space in London on South Molton Street and developed our design even further. We created a modular system that allows us to fit out a store with virtually no waste in just one week from starting construction.

The removal of the units is just as quick, allowing the Sook Space to move around and occupy empty or leftover spaces. By introducing a modular system, we can adapt quickly to meet the needs of an area making it just as easy for landlords to

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© Sook

© Sook

Changing retail

© Sook

The Grafton's Sook Space

Sook Space can be used for: events, wellness, auctions, studio, independent retail, live music, exhibitions, online brands, product demos, community, hobbies, and much more

of applying for B corp status, which shows our commitment to sustainability not only in relation to the environment but to workers, customers, suppliers and the community.

MC: How do you see the community benefiting from the approach The Grafton has taken?

JH: By having high streets and shopping centres that serve and reflect them. An example of this is The Campus in The Grafton that has just won a Purple Apple for utilising vacant space while targeting community and young professional groups.

It's a dedicated space that provides: escape; an aesthetically appealing free-to-use bookable community space – and discover; a work/study space complete with a clothing upcycling station in partnership with

Oxfam, book exchange library and free WiFi. MC: We have all witnessed a massive shift toward online shopping, particularly during Covid-19. How is high street retail adapting?

JH: The competition for sales between the high street and online was won a long time ago. Therefore, we don’t advocate for brands to use a Sook Space to compete with online for sales but instead use it as a physical complement for their customers to experience the brand through storytelling and product demonstration.

Some forward-thinking brands have already made the shift to driving experience over sales. Part of North Face’s physical retail design brief is ‘fortifying community in a progressive playground’ where the

primary function of the shop is to connect emotionally with its customers using hyperlocal references and local community engagement. Similarly, Nike’s 1948 store in Shoreditch has minimal stock and the space is used to host events, talks, training masterclasses as well as for limited edition releases only available in store, creating the sense of ‘I was there’.

MC: What do you think the retail experience of the future should be like?

JH: Shops not being full of stock to buy, but products and people to engage with.

Where each time you visit your high street and shopping centre you discover and experience something new. A place that adapts to your needs throughout the day and reflects your local community.

T: 01954 260 575 E: office@lawandlewis.co.uk www.lawandlewis.co.uk Cambridge Architecture 15

Student awards

Class acts

Despite the global change in working and study practices, the RIBA has been able to recognise outstanding talent at three schools of architecture across the East region, for the best third-year portfolios at the University of Cambridge, Anglia Ruskin University and Norwich University of the Arts. Congratulations to all three winners, and good luck with your future studies.

Mono No Aware: An Awareness of Impermanence A physical rehabilitation centre for Ford End Road, Bedford

Nabil Haque, University of Cambridge

© Nabil Haque, University of Cambridge

Mono No Aware loosely translates as an ‘empathy towards non-human things.’ It can also be understood as the ‘sensitivity to ephemera, meaning an awareness of impermanence and the transience of life.

Set in Ford End Road, Bedford, the project reflects on the town’s industrial past, in specific reference to its existence for more than 200 years as a coal gas works. While fossil fuel extraction is in opposition to the natural eco-system, the project understands the natural and the man-made as equivalent and leverages the site’s history to synthesise an industrial past and an ecological present.

Built within the ruins of a 19th century locomotive shed in the north-east corner of the site, the project proposes a setting for the rehabilitation of people with serious physical injuries alongside the rehabilitation of this existing building and the landscape beyond.

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Student awards

© Idriss Idriss, Anglia Ruskin University

Makers Guild

Idriss Idriss, Anglia Ruskin University This project was designed to embrace a new, slow-paced lifestyle, imagining a city of co-operative, self-build housing projects that encourage empowered communities with specific skill sets.

The focus of the design was the creation of a Makers Guild, a community of makers, bringing new purpose and life to the land around Cody Dock in East London.

Initially, the challenge was to establish a set of urban rules for the redevelopment of the river banks and adjacent hinterland. Working only with wood, the Makers Guild is a place of collaboration, education, and community engagement. The makers and their families live on site, design, and fabricate bespoke timber constructions to order, grow their own organic hydroponic food on their rooftop gardens and have permanent space for transient, short-stay working guests. This urban collective brings production back to the city.

Timeless

Conrad Areta, Norwich University of the Arts a space that provides a unique experience for each visitor, suspending them in time within the story of the city and the site.

The scheme being situated on a derelict site in west Hull, tackles the city’s issue of dereliction in an aim to reconnect the two halves of the city and make them

an artistic centre for the UK. The project proposes this through the regeneration of old river routes and river frontages, the framing of key city views utilised throughout the scheme and the use of the auction house as a linchpin to furthering Hull’s artistic future.

For a more indepth review of the RIBA East 2020 Student Award winners, visit bit.ly/ ca80students

© Conrad Areta, Norwich University of the Arts

Timeless is a hybrid boutique hotel and art auction project set in Hull and centres on the idea of creating an architectural icon for the city.

Situated along the River Hull, the design attempts to innovate the principles of what a hotel should be in order to create

Cambridge Architecture 17

Housing standards

Return to the high point Why don’t we demand the same quality of flats today as we did in the 1930s?

© RIBA Collections

Highpoint I designed by Berthold Lubetkin, 1935

Highpoint I and Highpoint II in elevation

© RIBA Collections

Dual aspect living in Highpoint I © RIBA Collections

Imagine a world with no single-aspect, north-facing flats with inset balconies, internal bathrooms and rooms you would struggle to furnish. Actually, this world already exists. We were building it 80 years ago.

In this respect, Highpoint really was a high point. Take a look at the floor plans. Four flats per (spacious) core. All flats are at least dual aspect. All bathrooms are naturally lit and ventilated, with inherently lower energy use. Entrance and communal spaces are among the most generous you could imagine. A mixture of two- and three-bedroom flats.

Landscaped grounds.

Why don’t we demand the same quality and generosity today, especially given that more and more people are now living in flats and spending more time working from home?

Easily, the Highpoint I plan could generate many other iterations. Rotate the blocks. Split them up. Flip the flats depending on orientation and context. Subdivide larger flats so that five or six flats can share a core, in this way creating a mix of one, two and three-bedroom flats; all at least dual aspect.

Admittedly, by today’s standards, the Highpoint flats are under-served in terms of the quantity of bath and shower rooms. But they would surely accommodate further tweaks, for example to create en-suite shower rooms. Naturally lit, of course.

It is refreshing that some housebuilders and developers are now demanding all naturally lit bathrooms for all dwellings in their employer’s requirements. Architects should welcome such constraints with open arms. Even more, architects should encourage further design improvements so that we can confine undesirable unsellable flats to the recycling bin. Let’s quietly drop single-aspect, northfacing flats that no-one wants.

Hands up, this was actually written as a veiled critique of some recent new-build housing in Cambridge, but it becomes even more pertinent as the planning system undergoes its most comprehensive reform since the 1940s.

Permitted development rights for office-toresidential conversion have already had tragic consequences for housing quality. High streets definitely need re-thinking, and schemes like Historic England’s High Streets Heritage Action Zones are one piece of this puzzle.

Rather than viewing increasingly flexible permitted development rights as a green light to create the worst housing that we’ve ever seen in the UK, let’s take time to give this proper consideration, correctly scrutinised by the relevant people.

In so doing, let’s also try to learn from the likes of Lubetkin and Tecton.

© Morley von Sternberg / RIBA Collections

WRITTEN BY: BOBBY OPEN

Highpoint I plan could generate many other iterations

Cambridge Architecture 19

Live/Work

A cup of ambition Nine to five has been a workplace mantra since the 1920s and has been embedded in our work ethic since the rise of the whitecollar worker. Here, Mark Richards examines how this is changing WORDS MARK RICHARDS, STUDIO24 ARCHITECTS

I

© Tony Lockhart - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Mill Lane Press site, one of the last remaining sustainable sites in Cambridge for small businesses

mages of the new machine age buildings of Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, et al, and in Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis, were the archetype of the epoch. Meanwhile, the Vodafone call centre of Nicholas Grimshaw and Stirling Prizewinning offices of large city corporations cement current design mindsets. In 2012, Google showed us another way, sliding into a realm of work and play to distract us from an omnipresent science of extracting capital from the workforce.

However, our desire for a place of work and the ever-growing effort to maintain its usefulness is dwindling for many. It’s becoming increasingly unsustainable both materially and economically, as the barriers to digital

20 Cambridge Architecture

connectivity between our home and working lives dilute an addiction to the office.

Hot desks, paperless offices, breakout spaces, BCO standards, BREEAM, Cat A, Fitwel, co-working; yes, we recognise the symptoms, but what is it that we are trying to achieve? The current pandemic has amplified this question, but for many workers the choice on offer is limited, I suspect.

Until recently, as a typology, Live/Work has only been one part of a solution, but is it just a case of dedicating a space within our homes to recreate a virtual place?

Earlier this year, a recent discussion between architect Bjarke Ingels from BIG and an American developer discussed an alternative, where Live/ Work is encompassed within a service offer providing living and work spaces to people, where the virtual office at home,

the hot desk locations in urban spaces and special meeting venues for larger teams create plug-and-play support to companies – a hybrid Bournville WeWork environment? This type of approach recognises that focused tasks can be performed almost anywhere, while supporting our hard-wired need for faceto-face social interaction and coffee shop community discourse. The typology of Live/Work, until recently, has been largely in the sidings, left to conjure images of a space in a house, that doubles up as spare bedroom with ironing board in the corner, or an inhabited storage cupboard under the stairs.

The typologies of the future we need are closer at hand than we might first consider. Passive, narrow or shallow plan depths, with a range of cellularsized arrangements, good daylight and ventilation, occupied diverse uses, coupled

© GROUPWORK + Amin Taha Architects

© GROUPWORK + Amin Taha Architects. Photography Tim Soar.

Live/Work

15 Clerkenwell Close by GROUPWORK + Amin Taha Architects is a loose fit building able to accommodate apartments and offices/studios across column-free floors

© GROUPWORK + Amin Taha Architects

with private amenity and high-quality public realm, with access to local amenities and support services, networks and utilities.

However, the main ingredient that’s missing outside the hours of nine to five is you and I. Apartments with a ‘one size fits all’ layout and single-use, deep-plan layer cakes of our recent past are of no use here. It’s not that they aren’t efficient; the drive for more in Cambridge has been unabated pre-lockdown. But true Live/ Work will require a modal shift away from a daily commute between zonal planning uses and use-class delegations of single-use site development, to a plug-in hybrid city, town or village of Live/ Work typologies linked by a network of green streets and clean air, appealing to a broader new sustainable in-group.

In the words of Dolly Parton, let’s pour ourselves ‘a cup of ambition’ before we consign ourselves again to the status quo.

5th floor plan of 15 Clerkenwell Close, London

Ground floor plan of 15 Clerkenwell Close

SPONSORED BY A SUPPORTER FROM GIRTON Cambridge Architecture 21

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Retrofit and reuse

© Library of Congress

Fresh air class at Public School #51, Manhattan, NYC, during a tuberculosis epidemic in 1911

Revising the lesson plan Already beset by budget cuts, our schools have been seriously challenged by the pandemic and face an even more challenging future with social distancing, outbreak responses and control seemingly becoming a repeating event. Mark Clarke, of chadwick dryer clarke studio, considers the impact on school design WORDS MARK CLARKE

T

he impact of the coronavirus pandemic over the past few months has required schools to make some difficult choices. All aspects of school life have changed: first, during lockdown – when children stayed away in favour of homeschooling delivered by remote teachers

and stressed parents – then as pupils physically returned to schools in group ‘bubbles’ intended to be kept apart. The need to support and educate children has been identified by the government as a priority, and so schools have had to adapt massively and swiftly to enable this.

School buildings themselves are under much closer scrutiny, from the width of corridors to the arrangement of toilets to

the type of ventilation. How to dine, how to play, how to learn; the spaces that support these activities are being tested. While we all hope that the current crisis will pass, it is clear that school design is likely to change fundamentally, given the lessons learned during this period.

Working harder

Essentially, teachers and governors have been seeking to make existing internal and external spaces within their control work harder, while introducing new patterns of circulation.

Classrooms have been cleared of non-essential resources to provide more space for pupils sitting within new frontfacing furniture layouts. Corridors and staircases are marked to indicate direction of movement, and toilets are designated for each ‘bubble’. Communal activities have been curtailed, so dining has been reduced to ‘grab and go’; children simply collect their pre-packed food to take to eat with their group. Pupils are given separate areas of the grounds in which to play.

The approach to the school is carefully controlled, to ensure parents are also as separate from each other as they can be at drop-off and pick-up times. Activities are staggered in the timetable, to avoid pupils circulating together.

Cambridge Architecture 23

Retrofit and reuse

© Chadwick Dryer Clarke Studio

Pilgrims School: a suite of learning spaces for pre-school children

Increasing space

“The government – under the provisions of the GDPO – has extended ‘permitted development’ rights for state-funded schools or nurseries to allow a range of building types to be temporarily appropriated for school use”

bremner partnership www.bremnerpartnership.com stuartb@bremnerpartnership.com Tel: 01223 257778 | Mob: 07711 412583

24 Cambridge Architecture

At the heart of this is the need for space.

For recently built schools, the Early Years Framework and Building Bulletin 103 has suggested an approximate net internal area for principal teaching spaces of between 2-2.5m2 each for younger children, increasing to around 3m2 for secondary school pupils.1 The guidance recognises that retrofitting existing buildings for school uses is more difficult, given the need to work around existing structures, and suggests a permissible margin of between 10-25% is acceptable, depending on the type of building and whether it is listed.

Gross areas of schools – including toilets, circulation routes, kitchens, and so on – are a function of the net area, and equally prescribed. These levels of space are now proving too restrictive and schools are looking for means of mitigating their spatial pressures.

The government – under the provisions of the GDPO – has extended ‘permitted development’ rights for statefunded schools or nurseries to allow a range of building types to be temporarily appropriated for school use.2 It seems that, after satisfying a number of technical

requirements, a school could convert and occupy a vacant office, warehouse or agricultural building, for instance, for two academic years before the permission lapses and the building returns to its previous use.

In the current crisis, could this power stimulate the retrofit of buildings to release space for schools? This raises many questions, not least the ability to fund or manage such a facility – and the speed at which it could be done – but these are pressing times and growing numbers of vacant commercial and retail spaces already exist in towns and cities that could be used.

Perhaps this could provide a solution for some, but, more generally, schools want to eke out greater value from the spaces that they currently have.

The drive for more flexible learning spaces is one that has existed precoronavirus and one that will continue into the future, perhaps with even more impetus now. Teachers are seeking to manage their spaces so that pupils can ‘experience the finite classroom space in an almost infinite number of ways’.3 A child will spend more than 10,000 hours during their education within their allotted 2-3m2 of net area,

Quantity surveying Project management Consultancy

Retrofit and reuse

and so the character, performance and malleability of that space needs to be very carefully considered.4 At CDC, we have been approached by a number of schools to consider retrofit or new-build projects not because the school has inadequate space, but because the space that they have is not properly supporting the curriculum and is limiting how they want pupils to learn. Interestingly, this seems to be just as acute in more modern buildings than older ones.

Flexibility is important in learning spaces because children are different: one class may have pupils with specific learning or medical needs and another may have part of a cohort that particularly responds to external learning. Teachers tentatively find their way with their classes, and, therefore, the classroom environment should expect to be altered or zoned, entered and exited in multiple ways in the course of its life, and designers can help teachers by providing ideas of how this could happen.

linked to the reception classes.

In this way, the EYFS curriculum can be delivered by a co-located team of teachers, but the pupils themselves can explore and play together, with a new sweeping space that links groups rooms, gathering areas, cloakrooms, wet zones and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities spaces. There are multiple connection points to newly landscaped grounds to encourage a ‘free flow’ of learning from inside to out: critical at this stage in a child’s education.

Day-lighting has been prioritised and the primary spaces are naturally ventilated from openable windows at low and high level. The ceilings and walls are lined in noise-absorbing materials to reduce reverberation and create optimum acoustic conditions, introducing calm. This project is currently under construction and, although conceived before the coronavirus crisis, the school is preparing to use it in line with the current guidelines.

Starting early

Learning the lessons

Pilgrims School: high ceilings promote natural ventilation

The past few months have taught many things. New terms from teachers, like ‘zone envy’, where pupils confined to one part of the playground are enviously eyeing up another part containing all the play equipment: perhaps we should design external spaces that all contain their own exciting features.

References 1 Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage P.30 and Building Bulletin 103 Area Guidelines for Mainstream Schools 2 General Permitted Development (England) Order 2015 Part 4 3 Dynamically Different Classrooms by C Gadsby and J Evans – Independent Thinking Press 2019 4 Ibid.

© Chadwick Dryer Clarke Studio

At Pilgrims Pre-Preparatory School, Bedford, we have been assisting the school with a masterplan and project to provide a new pre-school for children aged three to four, which extends the existing school building but which also reconfigures areas to provide a new coherent Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) facility,

Entrances, very often through a single gate, are too constrictive, and perhaps there should be multiple points of entry, with direct delivery of pupils to their classrooms from outside.

Some schools with air conditioning have switched it off to prevent recirculation of air, leading to overheating: perhaps designers need a renewed refocus on how to deliver passive cooling and excellent air change rates using natural ventilation.

Finally, we know how many resources are contained within classrooms that once cleared out have nowhere to go: perhaps schools need a greater resource provision and easily accessible storage areas than they currently have.

This pandemic has threatened and restricted all of our lives in many ways. By remaining open to the lessons it delivers, there are opportunities to feed this back into our work, to provide better solutions for the benefit all of us.

Excellence in Engineering

K J TA I T ENGINEERS Cambridge Architecture 25

© Natalie Matanda

Education

Paths to success WORDS NATALIE MATANDA AND ABBY ALDRIDGE

Access to the architectural profession has long been a topic of concern for architects; with the traditional academic route seen as prohibitive to many talented individuals, particularly as tuition fees have increased over the years. Here, we showcase two of the alternative routes to becoming an architect now available in the UK

© Natalie Matanda

Typical apartment layouts for the co-living housing blocks

26 Cambridge Architecture

Sketches highlighting the co-living and co-working masterplan for a site in Cambridge

After working in a Cambridge practice since 2017, Natalie Matanda is returning to full-time study for the final year of her Master’s in Architecture with Collaborative Practice Research at the University of Nottingham.

I

t is clear that the process of becoming an architect in the UK takes commitment. Deciding on a career in architecture takes a lot of hard work and determination and requires a minimum of seven years to fully qualify as an architect. With the way the industry is evolving, there are now many different options available for anyone interested in joining the profession. Here is a breakdown of my journey.

I completed my Part 1 in 2017 and was scheduled to begin Part 2 in 2018.

I made a conscious decision to take two years out instead of one, which enabled me to be more aware of the alternative routes a Part 2 student can take. I had been aware of Part 3 students having to balance work and study as part of the ‘normal’ route to qualifying but I was intrigued to see whether there were similar routes for Part 2.

For me, going back to do a full-time Master’s presented a financial barrier because of tuition fees and general course cost. It was during this period that I discovered practice-based learning.

The opportunity to balance my studies with practice-based work was presented to me via the MArch Architecture with

Collaborative Practice Research (ARB/RIBA Part 2) at the University of Nottingham.

As a two-year MArch degree, it offered me a unique opportunity to develop practice-based research outside of the pressures of practice time, in partnership with the university. The course is structured to work in practice three days a week, with two days dedicated to modules and lectures run in Nottingham or London, offering flexibility for students depending on the location of their host practice.

I worked in my practice in Cambridge for the first academic year from 2019 to 2020 and attended the lectures in London. Despite the early morning train journeys for lectures and late evenings at work in Cambridge, in amongst the challenges of the course, I would highly recommend it to anyone considering an alternative route to becoming an architect.

Take advantage of this unique opportunity to gain real life research and innovation skills at a practice keen on developing practice research.

The level of organisational skills required is tremendous but there are many benefits, including increased workplace learning while reducing education costs, and opportunities to improve collaborative skills between academia and practice. The course also offers the chance to undertake a significant practice research study based on your interests within the architecture and construction industry, while gaining additional experience in practice.

© Abby Aldridge

Education

H

aving taken the traditional route for my Part 1 at the University of Sheffield, I chose the apprenticeship route to qualification as I felt it would offer me support and knowledge that can only be gained from working in practice.

I was enjoying my time in practice when it came to considering options for my Part 2 and felt that going back to university was not the right decision for me. I am the first apprentice that R H Partnership has had and so it has been a great learning curve to understand how it works as a student and as a practice.

One of Abby’s design projects for this year was a co-housing development at the Henry Giles House site on Chesterton Road. Pictured is a site section

Site aerial

There were challenges with finding a course; only three were available at the time of researching apprenticeships and – as I am working at a non-levy paying practice – my choice was limited to just two. Neither initially offered distance learning but, following a discussion with the head of the course, Northumbria University offered me a place on its course on that basis.

This was the deciding factor as to which course I would apply for, as I was limited by the location of those available.

The application process was frustrating and, at times, I felt like I would not find anything suitable. There are countless options for traditional Part 2 courses so students can choose where to study based on the course itself.

In comparison, for the apprenticeship, students are limited by whether the practice they work for is a levy payer or not

© Abby Aldridge

Abby Aldridge is in her second year of the MArch architect degree apprenticeship (equivalent to Part 2/Part 3) studying at Northumbria University while working in Cambridge in practice.

and where you are based geographically.

The apprenticeship is structured to allocate 20% of the working week to study, classed as ‘off the job training.’ As a distance student, I spend this one day a week studying from home and having virtual tutorials with my tutors; some of my peers spend this time in the university studios. Before the pandemic, I travelled to Newcastle approximately every six weeks for reviews. It will be interesting to see how this may or may not change over the coming academic year.

At first, it was difficult to get used to working with self-motivation when studying at home, rather than in the studio environment that I was used to from my Part 1 course, where I could quickly discuss any design ideas with those around me. I meet my in-practice design mentor every couple of weeks to keep up on progress and an in-practice group each month to discuss ideas and projects, to go some way to recreating the collaborative studio environment.

As part of the apprenticeship, we still complete PEDRs, and have quarterly meetings with a coach assessor from the university and a design mentor from the office to ensure we are getting the assistance that we need. The apprenticeship has also made me more aware of my resourcing in practice, to ensure that my time management is as efficient as possible.

On the whole, I have had a very positive experience during my first year as an apprentice. The involvement from my practice has been fantastic and the continuation of knowledge gained from working on a variety of projects will continue to benefit the work I complete in practice and my studies.

Cambridge Architecture 27

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Technical

Fit for purpose How do we design homes that are healthy on every front?

Nick Kendall offers advice

‘Wash your hands’ is what Ignaz Semmelweis said in 1850, saving the lives of pregnant women by insisting doctors washed their hands between doing autopsies on deceased mothers and delivering babies. His observation of poor medical practice across Europe and America ended the spread of disease. We have been doing the same with Covid-19.

We now have an opportunity to put observation into practice with housing design and construction to develop healthy new dwellings and maintain existing homes while improving their performance. In the last edition (CA79: Standard Issue), we challenged you to ‘create attractive, desirable and buildable homes’ with a ‘positive impact on the environment’ as a response to the Future Homes Standard consultation.

The new Approved Documents F and L that would come from this consultation are now, in all likelihood, delayed because of Covid-19 and the draft Building Safety Bill, and could be 12 months away. While washing our hands and trying to save each other from Covid-19, have we delayed saving the planet and improving our housing stock?

Our homes used to be our sanctuary from work and the world, now the world zooms straight in. How do we combine the two without detriment to our domestic bliss? Do we now re-design new and existing homes to include space for working, or does that no longer make it our home?

The construction industry is also considering the draft Building Safety Bill, responses have just been returned. The draft bill looks at the responsibilities and regimes that need to be in place for us to be confidently safe in our homes.

You will be reassured to know that only LABC will be controlling in-scope buildings, which is likely to include any high-risk, not just high-rise, building.

So, in the meantime, we should consider what we can do. Traditional buildings are leaky and well ventilated, modern buildings are the opposite and need mechanical ventilation; but neither were designed for us to occupy 24/7. Therefore, it is with caution that we should ‘improve’ by renovating and retrofitting our existing housing stock. Damp walls are not energy efficient and adding insulation unsympathetically can force and trap moisture in them; changing the equilibrium of an existing house. This will be detrimental to our health and our planet.

There is various guidance available but PAS 2035 is the new governing document for the

© PeopleImages, iStock

WRITTEN BY: NICK KENDALL, PRINCIPAL BUILDING CONTROL SURVEYOR AT 3C SHARED SERVICES

“Our homes used to be our sanctuary from work and the world, now the world zooms straight in”

standards needed for retrofit. It does focus on external wall insulation and so we recommend a risk assessment should take place before blindly adding it.

PAS 2035 looks to eliminate problems associated with poor design, the performance gap and associated defects. It takes a holistic approach to the retrofit process, considering the

home, environment, and occupancy. However, as we have identified with Covid-19, we have a new occupancy model and we need to give this due consideration.

Are we going back to the old normal? I doubt it, so we now must adapt ourselves and our housing to the way we live and work, so our homes and society are future fit.

Cambridge Architecture 29

Wimpole Estate Caroe Architecture Ltd Caroe Architecture Ltd says it is delighted to have worked with the National Trust on the design and construction of a new visitor welcome building with landscaped parking for the Wimpole Estate, photographed here in the run-up to practical completion.

The landscape is now being tended and prepared for its bedding in over the autumn.

The National Trust’s ambition is to improve the visitor experience of arriving at this Grade I-registered parkland, working to sensitive design principles that respond to the estate Conservation Management Plan and Spirit of Place.

With the discovery of a Romano-British settlement on the site, and working on the edge of a Scheduled Monument, the realisation of the project has been a phenomenal team effort together with Dominic Cole Landscape Architects and contractor Brooks and Wood Ltd. The parking is placed subtly into a sloping landscape, with the new entrance building simply placed on a low ridge – typologically both barn-like and a distinctive place-marker. This project helps deliver the National Trust’s cause to preserve, protect and share this special place ‘For Everyone, For Ever.’

© Caroe Architecture Ltd

Work in progress

Two-storey extension AC Architects Cambridge Ltd

Ridley Hall Archangel Architects Archangel Architects' refurbishment of Ridley Hall has started on site. This project is all about improving accessibility to a Cambridge worshipping and learning community, so that all students can access both the curriculum and the communal life of Ridley on equal terms.

The project comprises three principal elements: first, lowering the floor of the basement of A staircase to create a more accessible library, which will be moved from the second floor. Second, the conversion of A stair back into residential accommodation, including double rooms and small apartments for married students, who are currently not catered for on site. Finally, improving access to the courtyard, the Principal’s Lodge, Dining Hall and Common Room.

30 Cambridge Architecture

© AC Architects Cambridge Ltd

© Archangel Architects

AC Architects Cambridge Ltd is nearing completion of a two-storey extension to a house near Addenbrooke’s Hospital. The new rear wing, envisioned by the architect owner, provides accessible accommodation and captures the view of the garden with a large kitchen, dining and family space at ground floor and a master bedroom suite on the first floor.

The extension maintains a clear line of vision from the front through to the rear of the house, with arched openings that mirror the existing arch details within the house.

Furthermore, the colour palette used throughout the extension, both internally and externally, reflects the warm terracotta and mahogany colours of the existing house to marry the old and new spaces.

Spotlight on projects by Chartered Practices

Striking a balance

Ashworth Parkes Architects has recently been commissioned to design a new boathouse for a house that has its own river frontage onto the Cam. ‘The clients are friends and we have successfully designed a project for them previously. They are very interested in the process, being involved in the construction industry themselves, and are prepared to indulge us a little, so we are proposing to construct the building using traditional Japanese carpentry techniques.

‘In short, this means that by using Japanese splicing and connecting joints we will construct a building that requires no mechanical fixings, bolts or screws. A 3D cutting list will be drawn up and all the constituent parts, fabricated from sustainable timber, will be CNC cut and delivered onto site where, over a weekend, a ‘barn raising’ or ‘raising bee’ will be held and friends and relatives will be co-opted into helping to put it together.’

Emma Adams says: ‘Lockdown came with an inevitable pausing/ mothballing of projects, while the world held its breath.

I work by myself from a studio in my garden, so there was little change to my working environment, except the luxury of time for reflection and study (bitesize Passivhaus training).

‘Time also for residential clients to think and plan has meant that my workload has more than replenished. Among other things, I am currently working on the judicious repair of a c1700 Dutch gabled house in Norfolk; the conversion of outbuildings in Cottenham using Passivhaus principles, and a contemporary brick and oak extension to a house off Mill Road, Cambridge.’

© Emma Adams Architect

Ashworth Parkes Architects Team: Ashworth Parkes Architects, CAR, Joel Gustaffson Consulting

A family home

BCR Infinity Architects

MOOi Architecture

BCR reports that it is very much enjoying working with Aviva Investors, Hollis Global, Cushman & Wakefield and COEL on the refurbishment of the shared facilities of one of the recently completed office buildings on Station Road. ‘We have created carefully considered layouts with a more appropriate material palette. Covid considerations have also been taken into account.

We are sure the changes to these facilities will transform the experience of this important part of the building for its 1,200 capacity users.

‘We look forward to sharing some of our other projects with you in due course.’

MOOi is currently developing detailed proposals to extend and renovate an Edwardian semi-detached, family home in central Cambridge.

The new extension, as illustrated, will include a bespoke kitchen featuring linoleum-faced cupboard fronts, terrazzo worktops and rough-sawn oak to the island and splayed reveal. The bold combination of materials and colour palette seeks to inject a sense of fun and playfulness into the feel and appearance of the property, which was a requirement of the client’s original brief.

This theme is proposed to continue into other key areas of the home, while maintaining the historic character and attractive period features of the property.

‘We look forward to seeing the renovations complete in the coming months and to working with The Daniels Group to bring this project to fruition.’

Thorlabs, Ely

Wolverton regeneration

DaltonMuscat Architects DaltonMuscat Architects has been engaged in a four-year programme to deliver a new 100,000sq ft manufacturing hub and UK headquarters for Thorlabs, a leading global designer and manufacturer of scientific components in the photonics industry.

The brief demanded a hybrid building on two levels and capable of delivering flexible production space supported by substantial office, laboratory and R&D facilities. High levels of internal process servicing and production arrangements added complexity to standard building services and are coordinated as part of the overall design brief. A fully glazed gable front exhibits interior engineering and manufacturing activity in an exciting and dramatic way while framing a view to Ely Cathedral from the interior. This feature, together with other extensive glazing, also enhances the quality of the interior working environment. The building is the latest addition to Lancaster Way Business Park, Ely, and is on track to achieve BREEAM Very Good.

© MOOi Architecture

Basement facilities refurbishment, 50/60 Station Road, Cambridge

Mole Architects with Mikhail Riches The proposed development will reinvigorate Wolverton’s town centre and provide wide-ranging significant regeneration benefits for both new and existing residents. The proposal has been developed with Mikhail Riches and comprises 115 new homes – from one-bedroom apartments to four-bedroom family houses – and nine ground-floor commercial and community units across six development blocks. The masterplan creates a series of new routes and spaces through the site, reinstating historic routes destroyed in the 1960s by the development of the shopping arcade, The Agora. The proposal will be submitted to planning in autumn 2020.

Cambridge Architecture 31

© Mole Architects with Mikhail Riches

© Ashworth Parkes Architects

Emma Adams Architect

© DaltonMuscat Architects

© BCR Infinity Architects

Japanese boathouse

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