Raising the bar for affordable, key-worker housing in Cambridge, Eddington has the bold ambition of inspiring better quality new homes and communities nationwide.
The client provided the opportunity to create an exemplary community that’s well designed and well served, an ideal that many people aspire to with generous landscaped public space, local amenities including healthcare, supermarket and an attractive, safe streetscape. The new brick-built homes are understated and elegant, contemporary and sustainable.
In terms of environmental sustainability, opportunities for improvement were integrated at every stage of the project. These include careful building orientation, natural cross ventilation, a district heating centre, high insulation levels and a biodiversity programme. Code for Sustainable Homes Level 5 and BREEAM Excellent were achieved.
For social sustainability, the focus on a neighbourhood design offers plenty of opportunity for social integration through courtyards and town squares as well as individual comfort within dwellings. Achieving the strict technical criteria of CfSH Level 5 and BREEAM, along with the challenging mixed brief had a significant influence on the design. The challenge of the project has been to create an active and varied scheme with character that is not constrained by these targets but uses them to provide identity and engage with its surrounding community
In terms of economic sustainability, in addition to the homes being economic to run the entire neighbourhood including 117 one and two-bedroom homes has been completed within the £40 million budget.