Accordia

Originally the site was part of a large garden to a country house.[1] The country house called Brooklands House, at 24 Brooklands Avenue,[2] is now the east of England regional office of English Heritage.[1] The site was owned by the Ministry of Defence, and included post-World War II yellow prefab offices for the Inland Revenue (HMRC), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Driving Standards Agency.[3] These building were later demolished after Kajima Cambridge, a subsidiary of Kajima Corporation, won the private finance initiative (PFI) contract in 1998 to build the 12,500-square-metre (135,000 sq ft) Eastbrook building next to the site in Shaftesbury Road for DEFRA and other government departments.[4] The building was opened in 2003 and the building architects were Carey Jones Architects. The site also contained a Cold War underground nuclear bunker, and would have acted as the Regional Seat of Government, in the event of a nuclear attack. The bunker was built in the early 1950s and expanded in the early 1960s. By July 2003 it was a Grade II listed building.[3]

Brooklands House, home of English Heritage,

Eastbrook, home of HM Government offices

Grade II listed nuclear bunker

Hobson's Brook

The site is bordered by Brooklands Avenue, including Brooklands House, to the north, Shaftesbury Road, including Eastbrook, to the east, the Cold War nuclear bunker to the south and Hobson's Brook to the west.

In 1996 Cambridge City Council published the 1996 Cambridge Local Plan, which identified the site off Brooklands Avenue for housing development.[5][6] In that same year the City Council approved a development brief for proposals for the site.[5]

By 2001, the joint venture between Countryside Properties and a US pension fund had submitted the first planning application to Cambridge City Council and by 2003 Countryside Properties had purchased the site from HM Government (UK) and had appointed Feilden Clegg Bradley Architects as the main architect for the site.[5][7] By May 2003 Countryside Properties had submitted a revised planning application, which was also approved by Cambridge City Council, under Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 arrangement through which 30% of the homes would be for affordable housing.[5][8] 113 affordable houses were for rent, for shared ownership and for key workers.[8] The affordable houses were grant-funded from the Housing Corporation in 2004 and 2005.[8]

In September 2003 Kajima, the contractors, began work on phase I of the brownfield site development.[5] Countryside Properties later sold the site to Redeham Homes, who continued the development in phase II and III.[9] Kajima also left the development after the first phase of the development.[10] Redeham Homes took over the construction of the scheme in phase I and II.[5]

Feilden Clegg Bradley designed houses in Richard Foster Road

Maccreanor Lavington designed houses in Richard Foster Road

Alison Brooks-designed houses in Brooklands Avenue

The developers appointed Feilden Clegg Bradley as main architects. They also appointed Alison Brooks Architects to design four semi-detached villas on Brooklands Avenue and Maccreanor Lavington to design a long row of four-storey terraces.[7] In total Feilden Clegg Bradley Architects designed 65% of the development, with Maccreanor Lavington 25% and Alison Brooks Architects designing 10%.[7]

The development includes 378 dwellings, of which 166 are flats and 212 are houses); of these 30% are "affordable housing". Out of the 378 dwellings, there are 70 1-bed properties, 121 2-bed properties, 92 3-bed properties, 77 4-bed properties and 26 5-bed properties.

Accordia has been nominated and won many awards. In 2008 it became the first housing development to win the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize.[11] The judges for the competition only considered phase 1 of the scheme, to the north and west of the scheme.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Accordia.

• Official website of Accordia Living
• Image of the Government prefabs taken in April 2000 prior to construction of Accordia
• Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) case study of Accordia [broken link]
• Shape East (Architecture Centre for the East of England) case study of Accordia
• Accordia on the Countryside Properties website
• Accordia on the Feilden Clegg Bradley website
• Accordia on the Maccreanor Lavington website
• Accordia on the Alison Brooks Architects website