Stephen Taylor Court, King's College, University of Cambridge

Set within a conservation area known for its arts and crafts houses, the accommodation is made up of 60 student bedrooms and 25 apartments for fellows and their families across four buildings. Working alongside Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, we provided Passivhaus, sustainability, MEP and acoustic consultancy for the project.

The cross-laminated timber (CLT) structure of the new buildings was chosen for a range of reasons, including its inherent airtightness and low embodied carbon. The project reused existing materials, using recycled and locally sourced content where possible.

The development is all-electric, to align with the ongoing decarbonisation of the electricity grid. We developed an energy strategy that uses ground source heat pumps and a heat exchanger to provide low-energy cooling in summer and heating in winter for three of the buildings. As well as being energy-efficient, this helps to reduce the need for residents to open their windows at night, given the traffic noise from the nearby road.

We carried out modelling to advise on window sizing to balance good daylight without excess solar gain. This was particularly important as several of the buildings’ principal façades face east and west, making effective solar shading difficult.