RESIDENTIAL
LANGLEY PARK, CHIPPENHAM
01 / 06 / 2023
We were approached by Countryside Partnerships to complete the working drawing package for their brownfield scheme in Chippenham Wiltshire.
The 330 home scheme had received planning for a mix of four storey apartment blocks and 2.5 to 2 storey houses, cleverly inserted between existing victoria terraces and a light industrial area near to the mainline train station.
Our task was to then work out the most efficient way to get the scheme delivered given its constraints.
Demolition of defunct industrial buildings took place in late 2023 and the scheme will progress once key infrastructure is in place.
Working with leading utilities and infrastructure consultants TDS key routes were mapped out early so the design team could fully understand the site constraints and make early adjustments to the design to avoid accidentally piling through a main electric cable.
Exclusion zones were agreed and backed up by ground penetrating surveys to verify location of the electric mains. This work was programmed in early to avoid costly changes when the scheme gets going on site. Changes needed to be made to the Electrical sub-station and ancillary bin and bike store locations as a result and it is much more simple to do this on the drawing board before work starts on site.
The scheme has a modern palate of materials, such as fair faced blockwork, vertical standing seam cladding, through coloured render and dark slate effect roofing materials.
We worked with Hardiplank to develop a standing seam system that suited their economical standard cement board plank products whilst looking like a more expensive metal standing seam system as required by the base design. This involved a pressed aluminium standing seam fixed to a helping hand bracket in turn fixed off the blockwork.
In doing this we made a utilitarian product look crisp and modern, which in turn meant the unit cost of the façade was cheaper and also installation was simpler and needed no specialist skills to install.
As with most brownfield sites there was a series of constraints relating to noise. To the south of the site was a railway line. To the east of the site there remains light industrial units, which had elements of cooling system which needed to be considered differently now that the neighbours were to be homes.
This meant a carful understanding of how to tackle this and the overheating design for Part O of the building regulations. We arranged for the client a series of Overheating and acoustic design workshops with the team to agree where changes were permissible to windows sizes, the detailed design of the ventilation systems and how we could simply achieve purge overnight ventilation.
During the detailed design there were a series of Value engineering exercises, one linked to density of blockwork and availability of the initially required strength. During this exercise we reduced the weight of the roof structure which in turn allowed a reduction in blockwork strength, which lead to simplified procurement and site works.
The scheme utilises Photovoltaic panels on all homes.
The working drawing pack was delivered on time and we also incorporated a series of client driven changes to specification as their brief changed due to a partnership between them and the registered social landlord for around 150 of the homes.