Project background

This significant development on the last of Cambridge’s brown field sites comprises 9.5 hectares of residential property. Although largely built from concrete some of the outer ‘bays’ on the façades of the buildings comprise a substantial timber frame to support modularised balconies.

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Client

Redeham Homes

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Architects

Fielden Clegg Bradley

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The original brief for the architect was to balance private and public space in a high quality build that sat well within the topography, aged gracefully and needed minimal maintenance. The end result has been a genuinely attractive and pleasant place with courtyard houses and apartment buildings within a 3 hectare ‘public garden’.

The prefabricted balconies sitting within the green oak timber frame

Architects Fielden Clegg Bradley were careful to select materials that sat well in what was a mature site with over 700 trees. As part of the scheme they specified green oak for substantial elements. The apartment buildings use structural green oak frames to support timber clad balconies with steel and glass balustrades. These are fabricated off site and lifted into position once the timber framed structure is in place.

For Carpenter Oak & Woodland one of the interesting challenges has been erecting the frames and swinging heavy timbers, often weighing close to a ton, into position within 75mm of the finished glass façade. Not a single pane broken – to date!

Timbers approaching a ton in weight being positioned close to the glass facade

The oak framed facade during the erection process. Skills at high level access are essential!

The juxtaposition of the contemporary design work well with the heavy section green oak framing