Design Vision

On 28th October 2008 Cambridgeshire Partnerships attended a design workshop hosted by bpha with an external facilitator to agree our Design Specification and Quality Standards for the Cambridge Challenge project. 

Rachel Underwood said, “The design workshop was a good opportunity for our internal partners to meet together to agree the Design Brief / Vision for the homes we are seeking to provide and set out quality standards that we all support for the future”.

A suite of documents will be produced comprising a Design Brief / Vision document, technical specification and contact requirements.

Our design brief sets out our core values, with the aim of providing guidance for our stakeholders and partners on how to achieve them. Below we outline some of our core design values.

What we want

“Well designed and built cost and energy efficient homes delivering communities where people not only want to live but are proud of where they live.”

What we value

Building for Life awards – We aspire to a gold award for all schemes.

Lifetime Homes – All units meet the requirements for Lifetime Homes.

Attention to detail – Those ‘annoying little details’ such as refuse storage must be considered at the design stage not during construction.

Future proofing – We require technology to avoid obsolescence within a short space of time. Passive rather than active technology is our preferred approach.

Tenure blindness – We want to build places that all people want and are proud to live in. It should not be possible to identify, from the street the tenure of the property.

Customer focus – Our customers are important to us and we will involve them wherever feasible before, during and after construction of each of the sites.

Cost efficient solutions – Our schemes must be built to prevailing Housing Corporation funding limits and meet their 80% NPV efficiency targets in respect of Whole Life Costing.

Continuous learning and development – We believe that learning can be taken from all projects and will hold pre-commencement and post completion workshops to review the merits of the schemes.

Local design schemes – Our schemes must take account of Design Codes produced by Cambridgeshire City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council, together with the publication entitled 'Cambridgeshire Quality Charter for Growth'. This sets out the county's 'shared principles' for successful developments and provides links to local development plans.

Homes & Community Agency’s quality standards – We require all schemes to comply with their requirements.