Meadowcroft
Cambridge, England
Proctor and Matthews Architects

Cloistered living that’s green, not monastic

Courtesy Architects

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In planning the Meadowcroft site, Proctor and Matthews centered the 19 apartments around a green core. It laid out a series of landscaped courts that define a sequence of spaces around the perimeter of the apartment building and culminate in a central “cloister,” complete with a reflecting pool and formal lawns.

A steel-framed balcony loggia helps give the core of the property a light and airy quality. Trelliswork and louvered panels around this space also heighten the feeling of a garden aesthetic. The architect sought to extend this aesthetic into the apartments by dissolving the transition between indoors and outdoors. Floor-to-ceiling glazed panels in most of the units allow views of the cloister.

To give warmth and texture to the elevations, the architect used a materials palette of stack-bonded brickwork, profiled tile walls, and gabion cages with random stone in-fills. On the northern elevation, which contains the primary entrance, a careful composition of wall panels and fenestration creates a modulated rhythm. The landscape surrounding this entrance and parking courtyard is similarly defined by gabion boundary walls in an arrangement defined by the position of pre-existing, mature growth trees.

Formal name of Project:
Meadowcroft

Location:
Cambridge, England

Gross square footage:
15,861 sq. ft.

Owner:
Highland Homes
16 Homerton Street
Cambridge, CB2 2NY
Tel: 01223 213213
Fax: 01223 213214

Design Architect:
Proctor and Matthews Architects
7 Blue Lion Place
237 Long Lane
London SE1 4PU
Tel: 020 7378 6695
Fax: 020 7378 1372
www.proctorandmatthews.com