Client:
The Howard Group/Osborne
Size:
290 student rooms
Awards:
Shortlisted for the RICS Social Impact Awards 2020
Status:
Completed 2019
In 2013 rhp were selected through a two-stage competitive interview process to design a student housing scheme on the site of a former, over-imposing 1970s office development at a key site in Cambridge. The new scheme was conceived as a grouping of four buildings set around landscaped courts on a primary pedestrianised route. This route links through from the principal road frontage to the main entrance and porters' lodge of the adjacent St Edmund's College.
The student rooms are arranged in apartments of eight students each sharing a kitchen and social area. The scheme also delivers 73 studio apartments for post-graduates, academics and college staff. A concierge/porters' office, social spaces and laundry are located on the ground floor of the main building overlooking the main landscaped court.
The buildings have been designed with a concrete frame structure and off-site SIPS panel construction to the external facades, and contain prefabricated shower pods.