Mill Road (Phase 1), Cambridge - ‘The Ironworks’

The first Phase of ‘The Ironworks’ comprised 186 new homes ranging from terraced and mews style houses to apartment blocks; from one bedroom apartment to four bedroom town houses. The mix of general needs rented and private sale homes, envisaged as tenure blind, includes homes for all levels of accessibility.

Designed to Stage 3 by Allies & Morrison, Rock Townsend Architects (RT) were appointed to develop the design on behalf of Cambridge Investment Partnership.  Remaining true to the developed design, RT reworked different aspects to increase the number of dwellings and adjust the mix and tenure to meet an evolving brief, changing regulation, budget and programme.

Set on what is broadly a flat site the new buildings are a response to the surrounding context.  Two storey mews houses to the west back onto the Victorian terraced houses of Kingston Street, two storey terraced houses to the north address similar ‘cottages’ on the existing Hooper Street, larger five and six storey apartment buildings lining the eastern edge with the railway line and two and three storey town houses and apartment buildings to the centre of the site.  Beneath five of the six large apartment buildings to the east, a basement car park for over 100 vehicles was dug to accommodate the majority of the parking.

The delivery of the project was complex. RT undertook Stage 3 design changes and planning application in parallel with the Stage 4 technical design delivery and the discharge of 54 planning conditions.  The Stage 5 and 6 - demolition and construction was subject to extensive health and safety and environmental monitoring by Network Rail, where demolition and construction was taking place within 20m of the track and the Environment Agency for the excavation of the basement and monitoring of the ground water conditions.  In the spring of 2020 the construction and programme was further impacted by the pandemic and site closure all made for disruptive design and construction process.

As part of the new neighbourhood the Council placed community facilities, spaces and public art at the forefront.  To the entrance of the site a small retail space occupies the ground floor of a small 3 storey apartment building complimenting the refurbished Gatehouse commercial space and the new community centre that forms part of phase 2. The public realm and landscape design comprises a series of character areas or roads and incorporates a new community park includes a children’s play area, picnic areas and a rain garden that is part of the Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDs). Along the eastern boundary and abutting the railway, the city-wide cycle network has also been extended with the Chisholm trail connecting up previously separate cycle and pedestrian routes.

Of the 186 homes 68 are retained by the council for general needs rent and 118 homes sold privately and a small commercial spaces were created (110 SqM).