CDC Studio

Eddeva Park stands as one of This Land flagship developments, intending to create high quality homes that generate a sense of community and identity.

Positioned on the semi-rural edge of Cambridge city, the site overlooks the Gog Magog hills and a surrounding landscape of open fields. Place-making has been at the centre of the design process, with the architectural design being closely developed with the landscape strategy.

A house with a view

• Building on the community spirit of Cambridge: a place for the community to live, flourish and takepride in their new homes.
• A green outlook: focusing views into the nature for each home.
• Maximising space for planting and trees: a net gain in biodiversity, a richer ecology and increased sustainability.
• Promoting modal shift: connected cycling and walking routes into the existing cycle network and wider surrounding.
• Reconnecting residents and nature: promoting a positive effect on our health & well being.
• Creating distinct and meaningful spaces: promoting a neighbourhood residents recognise as home and want to be part of.
  
• Promoting resilient water management: permeable paving to rain gardens and soft attenuation basins.

The masterplan design incorporates several guiding aims:

• Retain the idea of rural living on the edge of an urban extension
• Foster a community: promote social living but provide for private retreat
• Respond to orientation and admit sunlight but protect against overheating
• Maximise long range views over the landscape and fields.
• Create a design rich development with a mix of cladding colours and materials
• Create homes that engage with the landscape and encourage community access and interaction.

Green Edge

The Green Edge character area responds primarily to the rural characteristics and position of the site. The constraints of the eastern 20m buffer and gas main easement are utilised within the masterplan design to provide a green landscaped rural setting to the dwellings within the Green Edge character area.

Houses are envisioned as ‘Woodland Villas’ and ‘Rural Pavilions’, with the architecture and landscape design enveloping each house in green space. Each dwelling in the Green Edge character area is designed as a detached house with private gardens. Access is provided through tertiary streets, with vehicle and cycle parking provided through an incorporated garage.

Urban Centre

The urban centre was designed with the intention to enhance and take advantage of the central square. It is characterised by a mix of 1, 2, 3, and 4 bed dwellings taking the shape of maisonettes, terraced houses and semi-detached houses.

A secondary ‘green link’ communal public space was designed to create a direct pedestrian corridor from the square to the green edge.

Mews

The Mews character area is influenced by the typology of traditional mews streets. A mixture of 3-4 bed housing is combined with apartments positioned over garages to form a ring of accommodation providing active frontages in all directions. The highly efficient overall footprint maximises space for garden and amenity space, whilst reducing the visual clutter of car parking on the surrounding streets.

The rhythm of garages, windows and principal entrances is ordered in the composed elevation design and enhanced with an alternative collage of materials.

First floor external terraces and Juliet balconies provide additional animation and passive surveillance to the street- scape

Landscape

The landscape design (by Farrer Huxley) has been developed to respond to, and enhance, the sites natural surroundings and bio diversity.

A key principal of the landscape approach was to strengthen the link between landscape and architecture, with nature woven throughout the neighbourhood. The design celebrates the transition from urban to rural, creating a series of thresholds and hierarchy of community spaces. Planting is utilised to distinguish the streets with a mix of evergreen and herbaceous planting providing structure and colour interest throughout the year. The planting design creates a tapestry of patterns, forms, textures and colour.

Variety

This design variety developed within the Eddeva Park design is mediated with common unifying threads of architectural style and detail woven throughout the masterplan. An alternating collage of elevation materials and finishes provide a unifying motif that creates an overall identity for the site. Feature 'node' buildings create focal points for movement throughout the site and act as meeting places or local landmarks.

Community Square

At the centre of the Eddeva Park site a community square is created. This central square is designed as multifunctional area for residents and visitors to gather, play, exercise and rest whilst allowing wider views into the Eastern edge. A flexible use hard surface space for community and pop-up events is mixed with thick planting pockets and a soft surfaced basin. Communal planters with seating edges frame and tie together this central space whilst the primary road slowly bends through the middle slowing traffic movement