At a joint planning committee on 16^th June members of Cambridge City Council, South Cambridge District Council and Cambridgeshire County Council unanimously approved the Design Code for the new development at Trumpington Meadows, a 1200 unit housing scheme in south west Cambridge being promoted by Grosvenor and the Universities Superannuation Scheme.

After 6 hours of rigorous examination, members were happy to approve officers’ recommendations which represent the culmination of months of detailed work and consultation between architects, planners and local residents.

A Design Code is defined as “a set of illustrated design rules and requirements which instruct and may advise on the physical development of a site or area”.  Given the scale of growth that the Cambridge area expects to experience over the next 10-15 years the joint authorities feel it is essential these new places are well designed and laid out and so in collaboration with Grosvenor and USS, agreed a Design Code to be the method to achieve the vision for the project.

Terence O’Rourke is the architect behind the entire process which has been an exemplar in terms of consultation and collaboration.

Work began in earnest on the Code at the end of 2009 and in January this year the teams achieved their first milestone by agreeing and signing up to a cross party ‘Design Code Protocol Agreement’.  The next key milestone came on 31^st March when South Cambridgeshire District Council hosted a ‘Design Code Testing Day’ at the council chamber.  Attended by some 50 people across the housing and regeneration industry, the team put the Code to 4 teams representing some of the leading practices in modern housing architecture Allies and Morrison, CZWG, RMJM and 5^th Studio.  The objective was to apply the Code to different areas of the Terence O’Rourke masterplan and to test the Code to see how good design could be encouraged.

When the Code was nearing its final version it was presented locally at Trumpington for consultation and then finally taken forward to committee.

Approval for the Code represents a significant milestone for the project and applications for reserved matters for infrastructure and housing will soon follow.  Barratts have appointed Allies and Morrison as their architect for their housing and together with the Trumpington Meadows team they are working toward commencing works on site later this year to see the first of these crucially important homes for Cambridge coming forward.