The Landmark Practice Blog

REDEVELOPMENT OF STUDENT ACCOMMODATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

The University of Exeter has recently embarked on a programme of expanding and upgrading their student accommodation facilities. The Landmark Practice, and architects Willmore Iles, have been commissioned to provide detailed design as part of a design and build contract with Cowlin Construction.

Outdated buildings at Lafrowda

The project comprises development on 3 separate sites within the University Campus; Birks, Duryard and Lafrowda, covering a total area of around 6.5 ha. Over a period of 3 years, 19 new buildings will be constructed, together with associated landscape and open spaces, to provide in excess of 2,000 student rooms.

Key design constraints, which informed the design process, included the steeply sloping site at Birks; the proximity to a Grade II listed building on the Duryard Campus, and neighbouring residential properties. In addition, The University of Exeter is renowned for its beautiful campuses, and is a registered botanic garden and arboretum, providing 153 hectares of green space, home to some 11,000 trees. The University also houses the national collection of Azara, a South American evergreen plant, and also the wild conifer collection in association with the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. All three sites lie within areas which had been previously developed and most of the buildings and the landscapes which immediately surround them are now out dated and will benefit from comprehensive redevelopment.

Within the framework of these constraints and opportunities, and following close collaboration and consultation with the architect, other members of the design team, The University of Exeter, and Exeter City Council Planners, Landscape Strategies were developed for each site. These informed the Landscape Masterplans which combined the following principles:

Paving detail at Birks

• Creation of safe, welcoming and attractive environments for students, visitors and staff
• Creation of a series of different character areas throughout each campus, to provide students and staff alike with stimulating, seasonally dynamic and vibrant environments in which to study and work.
• Appropriate responses to existing trees and other vegetation providing significant character to the overall campus. This included maintaining and enhancing existing tree cover wherever possible.
• Provision of appropriate settings to the buildings in terms of layout, form, style and complementary materials

Lafrowda masterplan detail

• Creation of landscapes where pedestrian amenity is given greater emphasis than vehicle movement and parking.
• Reducing, as far as reasonable, any adverse visual impacts to surrounding residents, and to the wider landscape, by retaining boundary trees and vegetation and providing additional screen planting.
• Establishing a landscape which is practical, durable and cost effective to maintain.
• Enhancing connectivity with other areas of the campus, particularly through walking and cycling.
• Providing inclusive access to Disability Discrimination Act accommodation and key facilities wherever possible, within the limitations of the steeply sloping sites.

Detailed design at Birks

• Taking advantage of the mild climate to plant some more exotic species to continue the botanical tradition and strengthen the distinctive Southwest character of the landscape. Opportunities were taken to introduce new tree planting to strengthen the relationship of the proposed development buildings with their immediate parkland settings.
• Increasing wherever possible the biodiversity of the site and strengthening wildlife corridors.

• At Lafrowda, where possible, existing well established and high quality shrubs (which are located next to buildings to be demolished) will be selectively transplanted to a temporary holding area within the University grounds for transplanting at a later date into the planting layout of the proposed development.

Before/After photomontage

For the developments at Birks and Duryard, a brief Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment (LVIA) was carried out, with the object of demonstrating to the LPA that full landscape and visual assessments to Landscape Institute guidelines were not required. To inform the LVIA, a photo-montage of the Birks proposals was constructed. During the planning determination period, the planners met on site and conducted a ‘balloon test’ which verified that our montage accurately predicted the proposed height and location of the buildings.

Planning permission has recently been granted for each site and construction is due to start on the Birks Campus this autumn.