Tag Archives: SuDs

Redevelopment of Northampton University Campus to Provide 140 New Homes

Following the University of Northampton’s move to its new town-centre Waterside Campus in summer 2018, the Avenue Campus site was released for redevelopment. The development will provide 140 new houses and flats to be built and managed by Northampton Partnership Homes. Throughout the planning process, the scheme had critical input from TEP’s heritage and landscape consultants, who have shaped the design to create a place that will be unique, safe and attractive to live in with habitats retained, incorporated and managed to ensure long term, on-site biodiversity enhancement. Sustainable urban drainage has also been an integral part of the design, and which manifests itself in the form of swales, retention ponds and a wetland meadow.

The campus is located approximately one mile from the town centre and sits opposite the 120 acres of public open space, known as The Racecourse. The site is 5.8 hectares with a mix of buildings, some of which will be retained and converted into flats. The development retains the best landscape and architecture features of the site to create a new space for accessible homes in the town.

After Outline Planning was approved in March 2021, TEP worked on the Reserved Matters Application. Landscape Architects Anna Miroslaw, Yixing Luo, Landscape Manager Sam Marshall and Heritage Consultant Amir Bassir provided specialist design advice, preparing the landscape design drawings, landscape management plan and a listed building recording report.

TEP collaborated with MCW Architects, BKAL and Greengage, as well as our own in-house ecologists and arboriculturists, to retain the existing habitats, creating attenuation ponds with wildflower meadows, residential streets and play spaces. 

The Reserved Matters Application was submitted in November 2021, and granted planning permission in October 2022 with unanimous approval.

Avenue Campus

Cromwell Road Timber Works

Cromwell Road Timber Works, Cambridge will be more than just a residential development.  It will pay homage to the site’s rich industrial past, whilst helping the local community come together.  Four generations of the Ridgeon family managed the former sawmill, which moved to Cromwell Road back in 1928, and for almost 80 years logs were sawn, cut, and stored on this site.  Now this brownfield site will house 295 dwellings, made up of six five-storey apartment blocks and individual homes, of which 40% are affordable.

Cromwell Road has been on site since last winter and is due to open its show home to the public this month.  It is one of many projects TEP is working on in the Cambridge area, including Mill Road, The Meadows, and Foundation 200’s modular homes

Cromwell Road Timber Works Masterplan

TEP worked alongside architects Pollard Thomas Edwards and engineers Walker Associates at the pre-planning stages, together supporting Cambridge Investment Partnerships to deliver their scheme. There are three main elements to the landscape design: the central park, the nursery garden to the north, and the public square to the south.  Design inspiration stems from the timber yard, combining natural play features such as stepping logs, chunky wood furniture, and a paving palette reflecting the texture of sawn timber.  Additionally, a series of art interventions will be peppered throughout the public areas adding delight for residents, and which are to be commissioned by four UK artists.

Timber Works - Park View - Image courtesy of Hill

The vision for the site was to create a residential development that sits comfortably in its surroundings and fosters a sense of neighbourliness. To achieve this, residents connect to the rest of the community through positive street environments, inter-connecting green spaces, and the accommodation of the Chisholm Trail cycle route.  Linking places to meet with essential travel routes brings communities together, and strengthens the sense of place.

Floodable Landscape

Another part of making great places is cultivating sustainable and environmentally responsible areas. At the Timber Works, the main focus of the landscape design is to maintain a large open space and maximise the use of sustainable drainage solutions (SuDS). The design uses a combination of swales, bio-retention areas, wetland, green roofs, rain gardens, SuDS tree pits and permeable paving.  These features will manage and filter the fluctuation of water run-off from the nearby road and areas of hardstanding, reducing the impact on traditional drainage systems and re-fuelling the natural water-cycle.  By working closely with the architects and engineers throughout the design stages, placement of these features could be kept close to the source of water and incorporated into the overall design.  They create a playful undulating landscape planted with meadow grass and other species tolerant of changing soil conditions; perfect for residents and children to interact with and enjoy. Working with our in-house ecology team, our Landscape designers developed an ecological enhancement strategy. This included bat and bird boxes to support species on the IUCN’s Red List, which have shown a significant decline in numbers over the years, such as black redstarts, starlings, and house sparrows.  And not forgetting strategically placed gaps in garden and boundary fences to allow hedgehogs to roam freely between areas. 

Due to be completed in autumn 2023, the Timber Works will create new homes within a spacious, playful, and sustainable urban environment; closely integrated with the existing local community.

For more news from our landscape designers click here.

CGI’s courtesy of Hill.

Landscapes Designed for Climate Action

Landscapes Designed For Climate Action Read more -->

Aside from companywide offsetting, TEP’s Landscape Design team tackles climate change in a number of ways, as well as continually seeking new and innovative solutions to implement into their designs.

For instance, our Landscape Architects use recycled and sustainably sourced materials in their hard landscaping and specification of furniture and play equipment. They also collaborate with companies that use UK timber and stone to make inventive natural play opportunities, which they enhance with playful topography, mounds and rolling landscapes, to create innovative low-carbon footprint spaces for children to play.

They incorporate sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) into their designs to counteract fluctuations in precipitation, droughts and reduced groundwater recharge. Recent projects, including Cromwell Road in Cambridge, have used rain gardens, swales and permeable paving to enhance infiltration of rain back into the ground, rather than diverting it directly into drains.

Urban landscapes, with their surfaces of hard materials, stone, asphalt and the like, create a ‘heat-island’ effect, as they absorb more heat during the day than natural surfaces. Our Landscape designers help mitigate this heat-island effect which commonly occurs in our densely packed towns and cities. Our designers look to maximise the overall green surface area in their projects to meet local targets, such as London’s Urban Greening Factor, and reduce the urban heat-island effect. Maximising green surface area also has the added benefit of increasing carbon sequestration.

Incorporating opportunities for residents to grow their own food has featured more in the designs of our projects. For instance, our designers included growing beds and orchards as part of the design for Barton Park, and helped to improve food sustainability while encouraging people to socialise.

Our Landscape Designers always look for ways to enhance biodiversity. Two of the major impacts of climate change they come across are changes in species’ habitats and abundance. To counter this, they specify planting that supports biodiversity and make sure they include plentiful native trees and hedgerows. In a recent planning submission for a residential project in Norwich, our designers included planting to enhance riparian habitats along the River Wensum, and insect hotels that would support the invertebrate population that provides food for local bats.

To discover how our other teams are contributing to climate action follow the links the below:
Environmental Planning
GIS
Ecology
Arboriculture
Landscape Management

or to get in touch about your landscape and urban design queries, please email design@tep.uk.com

WordPress › Error

There has been a critical error on this website.

Learn more about troubleshooting WordPress.