FEATURES
L
ocated within the University of Cambridge’s
Historic Core Conservation Area the new
student accommodation – and a conference
facility for Trinity Hall – was commissioned to make
more efficient use of a brownfield site in a highly
sustainable location.
The building is an outstanding student residence
that is both practical and environmentally friendly,
while reinvigorating a historic local area.
Just off of the main high street overlooking the
River Cam, the four-storey building offers Cambridge
students a total of 72 new en-suite bedrooms with
kitchen facilities and a common room area on each
floor. WYNG Gardens provides much needed
additional space for students and guests and
improves the quality of the college’s accommodation.
Partly funded by the WYNG Foundation, the
development sits on roughly the same footprint as
the former St Clement’s Gardens houses. The old
terraced houses were in a poor state of repair, with
subsidence issues and cracks both internally and
externally and sub-standard amenities. This,
combined with poorly conditioned services in
constant need of repair, made restoration impossible.
The new building picks up on the rhythm of the
former terrace of houses with projecting bays
and also maintains the ‘set back from the
pavement’ aesthetic.
It uses traditional materials such as brick and slate
mansard roofs behind parapets with stone copings.
The building’s interior has been designed to offer a
high standard of accommodation for the students of
Trinity Hall, providing an additional 16 units of
undergraduate accommodation than the previous
facility. Each room includes a workstation with free
high-speed internet connection.
Public art also provides a focal point for this new
development. Artist Cath Campbell created an
intricately woven permanent timber sculptural
installation for the south corner of St Clement’s
Gardens, beginning at ground level and reaching to
the third storey. The artwork creates both a sculptural
object and a functional support for a planting scheme
that will be trained across the artwork.
USE OF TIMBER
The location of the site with no perimeter access
required a light weight structural frame and
construction to fall in line with term times and
limited disruption. A rapid build system was essential
to deliver to these constraints.
Within these limitations engineering the Mansard
roof posed another challenge. The roof structure
tapers at 50 degrees with four sloping sides, which
are horizontally split by differing gradients, the lower
being much steeper. Propping of the roof structure in
its temporary state, ensured the safe installation of
the mansard roof.
www.timberiq.co.za
// APRIL / MAY 2019 45