Housing – Accordia Brooklands Avenue

Client: Countryside Properties (Accordia) Ltd

Architect: Feilden Clegg Bradley

Contractor: Kajima Construction (Europe) UK Ltd

Value: £38 million

Phase I of Countryside Properties (Accordia) Ltd’s high density housing scheme at Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge won the Stirling Prize in October 2008. The overall development comprised the design and construction of 382 residential units utilising a town house layout. A number of multi storey apartment blocks were incorporated into the scheme.

The site layout required a new highways and drainage infrastructure to be designed. Richard Jackson Ltd designed a solution for the disposal of surface water which was in certain respects ahead of its time. The solution included a number of retention ponds coupled with oversized pipes that were adopted by Anglian Water.

These when combined allowed us to “mimic” the pre existing runoff rate while reducing underground maintenance. Richard Jackson Ltd undertook a carefully planned site investigation to facilitate a detailed understanding of the insitu ground and groundwater conditions to enable the determination of the most effective foundation solutions for the different apartment blocks and dwelling types.

Working with the client, architects, service engineers and constructor Richard Jackson Ltd determined that a reinforced concrete frame construction would be the most appropriate structural form which would accommodate the requirements of both designer and constructor.

The engineering solutions determined included both precast and insitu concrete construction. The finishes and external fabric were carefully integrated and co-ordinated with the frame construction to enable the required quality of architecture to be delivered