Modern sustainable homes in a community setting
The development team of TOWN, Trivselhus and Mole Architects have worked with community members on a design that encourages a sense of community, with a careful blend of private homes, gardens and shared space and facilities.
A mix of three or four bedroom houses and one or two bedroom apartments, the brochure including floor plans can be downloaded here With one exception, each home has its own private outside space of a garden or a large balcony.
Sharing resources
The creatively designed development is transversed by our private road, Marmalade Lane, and arranged around a beautiful shared garden. The Common House is at the heart of the community connecting Marmalade Lane with the shared garden, giving us a wonderful space to eat and meet. Eating together regularly has contributed to social cohesion throughout human history, and is part of our shared commitment to cohousing. As well as a catering kitchen, playroom, meeting and lounge areas, the Common House has three guest bedrooms, bookable for our family and friends.
In addition, there is a laundry, workshop, gym and a small productive growing area. Car parking spaces are located at the edge of the site and each home has one parking space. There are 146 cycle parking spaces, many in secure cycle facilities.
The home design types
The development has six types of homes. The A-type terraced houses are 5.2 metres wide with two or three storeys and two to four bedrooms. The B-type houses are the same but wider at 6 metres. The C1 and C2 are maisonette style one and two bedroom ‘walk up’ apartments while the Ds are large two bedroom apartments. The E and F-types are one bedroom apartments. Take a look at the Marmalade Lane brochure.
Availability
All homes are occupied. As cohousing is so rare we keep a waiting list of people who might be interesting in purchasing in the future, and a list of people interested in renting from a member or being a lodger. Please contact us via our website or Facebook page.
Renting
There are currently no properties available to rent.
Opportunities for sharing
Occasionally there are opportunities for like minded sharers who are interested in experiencing the cohousing model. Please contact us for further information.
Lifetime homes
The B-Type houses and the D-type apartments are designed to comply with the Lifetime Homes design criteria. Lifetime Homes are ordinary homes incorporating design criteria that can be universally applied to new homes at minimal additional cost. Each of these features adds to the comfort and convenience of the home, and makes it more accessible for people with reduced mobility.
For more information visit Lifetime Homes.
Pedestrian Lane
We have a shared street on our site (“Marmalade Lane”) between the North and South terraces, to help foster a stronger community. It is a communal space between our houses that can be used in many ways and which won’t be dominated by the car (access only), as most streets are now. This means children can freely and safely play outside our homes, and adults can meet for a chat or have a street party. Cars are kept out of sight on the Eastern side of the site.
The Marmalade Lane is accessible to vehicles only in an emergency or by prior agreement of the members for large deliveries.
Sustainability
Energy Efficiency
The Trivselhus’ Climate Shield system is the main method of construction. The Climate Shield system has been used to build over 7,000 homes in Sweden and 300 in the UK. This is a high-performance, closed panel system whereby pre-insulated wall panels are precision manufactured in Sweden and assembled and finished on site.
The Common House and the adjoining apartments have a different method of construction using cross laminated timber. They are built to the same high-performance standards.
Our homes are energy efficient with warm draught-free living environments. This helps to reduce the carbon footprint of the home – which matters a lot to us.
Heating is supported by air source heat pumps, and ventilation for our well-insulated and draught free homes is by mechanical ventilation and heat recovery.
For further details on Climate Shield see www.trivselhus.co.uk.
Green Transport
Located in the north of Cambridge, Marmalade Lane has excellent sustainable transport links. Next to the guided busway, there are regular buses into Cambridge city centre, north to St Ives and east to Cambridge North Railway Station.
Alongside the busway is a fantastic cycle/footpath, which makes rides into the Cambridgeshire countryside, and the nearby villages of Histon and Impington, a pleasure. It’s an easy 15 minute ride going south from Marmalade Lane into the city too, with a cycle route running the whole journey. When the Chisholm Trail cycle route is completed, there will be a pleasant cycle ride right through to the southern edge of the city, including Addenbrookes Hospital.
With the new Cambridge North railway station, train travel is within easy walking or cycling distance or a short bus ride away.
We also have a car club with two cars, one electric, to help to reduce our carbon footprint and the numbers of cars on the site. A group of 10 Members have purchased a Nissan Leaf as a consortium. We have three electric car charging points in the car park and plan to have more shared electric cars in the future. An Electric Cargo Trike is also a recent addition and available to be booked by other Orchard Park residents.
Productive Garden
A proportion of the community’s shared garden is being set aside to grow fruit and vegetables. Our Allotment Group grow a small amount of low-carbon and organic food, that we can enjoy in Common House meals. The shared gardens have been designed with native planting & biodiversity in mind with some fruit trees that will help with the enrichment of Orchard Park and help it live up to its name and history.
Community
Cohousing
Cohousing involves having your own home, with the added benefit of access to shared facilities. They work because people attracted to cohousing normally want to live in a more neighbourly way and build a strong sense of community together.
How we’ve developed
Cohousing involves a participatory design process where future residents contribute to the design of the buildings and in doing so create a community. Some members have been involved in this process since 2008! We have shared facilities with the management of the community shared and based on consensus decision-making. There is no shared economy involved, but we have shared values around sustainability.
Cohousing is not new. The modern theory of cohousing originated in Denmark in the 1960s as a result of dissatisfaction with existing housing and communities. Cohousing communities are now found in Northern European countries, US, Canada, Australia and the UK. Cohousing started to develop in the UK at the end of the 1990s and there are now 21 communities. With so few communities in the UK, there is a rarity value, and all cohousing communities are able to maintain waiting lists of people interested in moving in if vacancies occur.
‘The movement back to community is the key to sustainability in the Western culture, knowing our neighbours, feeling like we belong, being part of something we care about that cares about us – these are the elements of rebuilding sustainability in the world around us.’ |
Common House
The Common House is at the heart of any co-housing project. Research has shown that eating together has been the greatest factor in small group social cohesion throughout human history. It’s also vital that we have enough space to meet when discussing things that affect us as a group.
This beautiful building provides us with a space for meals and parties, games and entertainment, for children to play safely, for young people to have their own space to gather, where we can be close to nature yet protected from the rain and Cambridge’s infamous cold winds. The Common House has three guest bedrooms – enabling us to have smaller homes if we wish. Our shared space means that we can enjoy facilities that would be prohibitively expensive to own as individuals.
Consensus Decision Making
Cohousing community members manage the community, usually using collaborative decision-making techniques with a preference for seeking consensus where possible rather than simple majority decision making. Searching for consensus means looking for solutions that everyone actively supports, or at least can live with. Consensus is neither compromise nor unanimity – it aims to go further by weaving together everyone’s best ideas and key concerns – a process that often results in surprising and creative solutions.
For more information go to seedsforchange