Patterned brickwork reveals the entrances to all homes in this development near Cambridge, England, designed by Proctor and Matthews Architects to deliver a sense of continuity to the large website .

Abode at Great Kneighton by Proctor and Matthews Architects

Abode at Excellent Kneighton is a new development of 306 homes just outside Cambridge, ranging from studio apartments to 5-bedroom houses.

Even though the buildings functions a range of various forms and cladding components, London-based mostly Proctor and Matthews Architects chose to add alternating dark and light bricks at the entrances to support unify the scheme.

Abode at Great Kneighton by Proctor and Matthews Architects

“The brick pattern is observed in different techniques, rather like a musical motif, knitting the diverse typologies together in spite of their broad selection,” architect Stephen Proctor advised Dezeen.

Abode at Great Kneighton by Proctor and Matthews Architects

The six.4-hectare web site was created as a sequence of spaces, moving from an urban to rural scale as the properties get closer to the surrounding countryside.

It begins with terraces of townhouses and apartments at the entrance, followed by rows of mews homes in the middle of the web site, and then individual houses at the edge of the improvement.

Abode at Great Kneighton by Proctor and Matthews Architects

A restricted palette of materials was employed to accentuate this transition of spaces, with the dominant materials of brick and perforated aluminium at the entrance progressively replaced by timber as the housing gets less dense.


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“This provides the improvement character, and avoids the bland uniformity that provides several volume housing schemes elsewhere a poor title,” stated Proctor.

“This softer edge suggests ‘rural erosion’ into the neighbouring farmland and a new country park.”

Abode at Great Kneighton by Proctor and Matthews Architects

The site’s entrance was conceived as a “fantastic court”, inspired by the university courtyards of Cambridge. Both buildings and landscaping were made to soften the physical appearance of a big roundabout that was already on the site.

“We utilized tall buildings and brick to establish a robust, reliable presence at the entrance, and integrated a landscaping scheme that functions outdoor play and games services, and in depth planting, which encourages men and women to use this room,” stated Proctor.

Abode at Great Kneighton by Proctor and Matthews Architects

Two five-storey apartment buildings have been positioned alongside the 3-storey terraces in the entrance court to create a gateway facade.

They are clad in aluminium panels, with a perforated pattern inspired by the fan-vaulted ceiling of nearby King’s University Chapel in Cambridge.

Abode at Great Kneighton by Proctor and Matthews Architects

“We contact these marker buildings,” mentioned Proctor. “They are meticulously positioned in the excellent court so that both one particular will welcome you as you enter from any path, like the gatehouses in Cambridge’s courtyards.”

Colonnades have been utilised to include depth to the facades of the terraces at the entrance, so they appear less flat and imposing, and voids were cut by way of them to provide glimpses of the lower-density housing deeper in the website.

Abode at Great Kneighton by Proctor and Matthews Architects

Behind the entrance courtyard, there is an orderly grid of mews terraces, with rows bookended by pitched-roof houses.

Right here, patterned brickwork was extra to highlight entrances of the residences and “give depth and character to what would otherwise be flat facades,” in accordance to Proctor.

Abode at Great Kneighton by Proctor and Matthews Architects

The architects worked closely with Harriet Bourne at BBUK Landscape Architecture to create the public spaces all around the houses.

Kerbs and measures have been avoided to make all properties wheelchair accessible and landscaped pathways had been created amongst the mews terraces to develop ‘green corridors’ from the front to the back of the website.

“These good quality shared spaces indicate the streetscape is inhabited, which helps to generate a sense of area and local community,” said Proctor.

Abode at Great Kneighton by Proctor and Matthews Architects

At the back of the web site, the grid of mews homes provides way to a much more village-like layout, with homes arranged close to narrow streets and winding paths.

Black Douglas fir was chosen as the main material right here in order to reference regional rural architecture, and was laid vertically and horizontally to enliven the facades, related to the use of bricks on the mews terraces.

Abode at Great Kneighton by Proctor and Matthews Architects

Inexpensive houses make up forty per cent of the development’s housing and are spread across the web site, with an common cluster of eight per spot.

“There is no difference in terms of layout, volume or top quality amongst any variety of the housing on the web site,” said Proctor. “For us, that is vital in generating a successful neighborhood.”

Abode at Great Kneighton by Proctor and Matthews Architects

The 306 homes type the initial phase of a wider improvement, which will at some point provide all around two,300 new properties across an spot of about 101 hectares, as effectively as new schools, healthcare services, shops and transport back links.

It follows in the footsteps of the Stirling Prize-winning Accordia housing growth, which was finished in the exact same area in 2008. Like Abode Great Kneighton, it aimed to set an illustration for large-density housing developments.

Abode at Great Kneighton by Proctor and Matthews Architects

“The major challenge in producing a growth like this is creating a true ‘place’ inside of a volume housing context,” said Proctor.

“We needed to show that it was possible to develop range, a sense of identity and a richness of character with a restricted palette – one thing which we hope other volume designers and property builders may well take note of.”

Photography is by Tim Crocker.

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