Key information
Location: Orchard Park, Cambridge
Architect: Mole Architects
Client: Cambridge Cohousing Ltd
Developer: TOWN and Trivselhus
Client advisor: Instinctively Green
Structural engineer: Elliott Wood
Civil engineer: Elliott Wood
M&E engineer: Hoare Lea
Quantity surveyor: Monaghans
Project management: Monaghans
Visualisations: Mole Architects, Darc Studio
Contractor: Coulson Group
Summary
Marmalade Lane is a community-led housing development for K1 Cohousing, comprising 42 custom-designed homes at Orchard Park, Cambridge. UK custom-build developer TOWN and Swedish housebuilder Trivselhus are delivering the project, which was designed by award-winning Mole Architects, based in Cambridge.
Cambridge City Council, as landowner, wanted to see the site developed for cohousing in an innovative way, and as a new model for home ownership; it will be the city’s first cohousing community. Marmalade Lane incorporates private homes, extensive shared gardens and a ‘common house’ with a children’s playroom, guest bedrooms, laundry facilities and a large hall and kitchen for communal events. A large shared garden, with space for food growing, play and relaxation is at the heart of the development.
Designed following fabric-first principles and built using the Trivselhus closed timber panel construction, the modular dwelling types will be built close to Passivhaus standards. Homes will be energy efficient and require minimal heating; will include triple glazing and high levels of insulation; and will be run on renewable energy provided by air source heat pumps.
Dwelling types were designed to be flexibly located on different plots across the plan, and offered broad scope for customers to tailor their homes internally and externally, depending on the users’ needs, using the TOWN Custom Build approach.
The project has been christened Marmalade Lane after the new street that will run through it – a nod to historic links to the Chivers jam factory that was nearby.
More information: wearetown.co.uk.
Photo credits: David Butler