Rubicon
Number/street name:
1 Turing Way
Address line 2:
City:
Cambridge
Postcode:
CB3 1TU
Architect:
Alison Brooks Architects
Architect contact number:
+44 (0) 207 267 9777
Developer:
Hill Group.
Planning Authority:
Cambridge City Council
Planning Reference:
18/1195/REM
Date of Completion:
01/2023
Schedule of Accommodation:
Studio apartments = x46, 1 bed apartment = x60, 2 bed apartments = x73, 3 bed apartments = x2, 3 bed duplex apartments = x5
Tenure Mix:
64% private sale, 36% University accommodation
Total number of homes:
186
Site size (hectares):
0.74
Net Density (homes per hectare):
251
Size of principal unit (sq m):
62
Smallest Unit (sq m):
38
Largest unit (sq m):
160
No of parking spaces:
187
Scheme PDF Download
Planning History
This project began as an invited, developer-led design competition for North West Cambridge ‘Lot 3’ staged by the development JV in 2016; won by Alison Brooks Architects with Hill Partnership. ABA was appointed by Hill and developed the design with support from the University and local stakeholders to produce a landmark southern ‘edge’ to North West Cambridge. A Reserved Matters application for Lot S3 (Rubicon) was made on 09.08.2018 as part of the consented (2013) Outline Planning application for the North West Cambridge development. Cambridge City Council approved the scheme on 20th March 2019.
The Design Process
Located at the gateway to Cambridge University’s ambitious North West Cambridge Development, Alison Brooks Architects’ residential quarter builds on the paradigm of the 19th century warehouse and offers a new concept of sustainable urban living. Lofts, warehouses and mills are today seen as ideal structures for contemporary lifestyles. Spacious,
adaptable, sturdy and pragmatic, they imply communities with shared interests and a sense of place that grows out of building for the long term. Rubicon offers this quality of embedded generosity with a robust super-insulated envelope (Code Level 5), ‘working foyers’, generous balconies and space for cycles in every apartment. This 186-unit scheme consists of five robust, S and L-planned adaptable buildings that create a distinctive urban edge to the new Green Corridor and wetland landscape beyond. Between each building intimate courts act as urban thresholds, interlocking with south facing gardens to overlook and embrace the landscape. Covered cycle store pavilions act as a threshold to each court, their filigree metal screens referring to the famous metal balustrades of St. John’s College First Court. The five buildings have been designed to have a palette of materials that reflects our Loft living concept, with robustness and permanence. Glazed bricks subtly change colour from east to west from pastel green, turquoise, light blue to silver-grey, giving each building a strong identity. Repetition of façade components and rationally distributed windows across the façades, give an overall sense of unity and evoke mill building typologies. The five buildings’ distinctive, undulating rooflines create dramatic living spaces and combine to echo Cambridgeshire’s gently undulating landscape.
Key Features
- Rubicon residential quarter builds on the paradigm of the 19th century warehouse and offers a new concept of sustainable urban living.
- The scheme consists of five robust, S and L-planned adaptable buildings that create a distinctive urban edge to the new Green Corridor wetland landscape beyond.
- Between each building intimate courts act as urban thresholds, interlocking with south facing gardens to overlook and embrace the landscape. Covered cycle store pavilions act as a threshold to each court, their filigreed metal screens referring to the famous metal balustrades of St. John’s College First Court.
