Huntingdon Road, Cambridge: Student Room Pods

The Client

Elements Europe worked alongside Edmond Shipway to deliver a brand new £4.8 million student accommodation scheme in Cambridge for client Cambridge Land Ltd.

The scheme was delivered as a turnkey solution by The Pickstock Group, using parent company Pickstock Construction as the main contractor.

Project Description: 98 Student Room Pods

Elements Europe manufactured 75 studio and 23 en-suite Room Pods for the project. Studio Room Pods span the ground, first and second floors, and feature a self-contained kitchen and en-suite bathroom alongside sleeping, living and study areas. Some second-floor rooms feature Juliette balconies.

En-suite rooms are on the third floor of the building and offer a comfortable space with sleeping and studying areas – as well as an en-suite bathroom. En-suite rooms will share their cooking facilities in one large communal kitchen, shared between every six rooms. The flexibility of Elements Europe’s Room Pod system allows for the third-floor bedrooms to incorporate a mansard roof.

Elements Europe also manufactured all communal areas and provide lift and stair cores, corridors, ceiling and floor cassettes, as well as roof structures to the scheme.

Elements Europe’s design team has been working closely with architects Jefferson Sheard to modularise the uniquely shaped building, which also has two large atriums.

All Room Pods were manufactured in just eight weeks and installed in just four weeks.

The site is located at a junction of two major routes into the city centre and was formally a petrol station which has been vacant for a number of years. Elements Europe’s Room Pod solution has excellent acoustic performance making it perfect for accommodation situated on a busy road. Due to the close proximity of the junction, the sequence of installation is was carefully planned to ensure minimum disruption to traffic.

The building which has been carefully designed with the surrounding area in mind, features a green roof encouraging the growth of vegetation and thus enabling the elevation to blend in more effectively.

The accommodation will be operated by CRM Ltd, the largest independent accommodation company in the country, managing 19,000 beds nationwide.