Stretham
This is a Community Land Trust (CLT) development of 100 new houses, built over four phases on a rural exception site in the village of Stretham, just north of Cambridge.
The design brief has developed out of a comprehensive community engagement process led by Community Spirit Partnership CIC, across various events where we were able to work with the local community to trace desire lines, map views, negotiate buffer strips etc. The appearance of the buildings developed through this shared design process, which was rooted in a strong desire by the village to create a sense of continuity, permeability and connectivity between the old village and this new rural edge.
This process of land procurement and housing delivery offers and new and innovative approach for the delivery of new housing. The CLT, acting as the client body, have been able to achieve real agency for the village, to be able to define for themselves how their community might grow and evolve. They have been able to create high quality, energy efficient housing around a new village green, including an extension to the cemetery and a new woodland walk along the existing village edge. The process has been a catalyst to galvanise the community, and the affordable housing, to be managed by the CLT, will provide an asset base to secure economic and social sustainability for the village. The green spaces, SUDS features and hedgerows will also add to the biodiversity and environmental sustainability of the surrounding landscape.
Phase four is nearing completion on site (2024), and we have just received planning permission for the final piece in the jigsaw: a new GP surgery, five small start-up work spaces and a community cafe.
This project has had a significant influence upon our own research into the principles of urban design; the realisation that urban growth should not be something designed, abstract and imposed, but rather is an emergent process, integral and intrinsic to its context and setting, and to the lives which give that space its form.
Photos by Richard Fraser
Stretham Phase IV
The fourth phase of the Community Land Trust development at Manor Farm, Stretham (add link to main page). This phase brings the existing access road into the top of the site in a loop to form a circular public park which becomes a shared amenity space and focal point for the new community of 25 new homes.
