This housing project is located in a sensitive position in the village of Trumpington on the western edge of Cambridge. The Grade I Listed C17 Anstey Hall and the parish church of St Mary and St Michael frame the views of the development. The existing farm buildings included a Grade II Listed timber framed single aisled barn, a listed dovecot, and two farmyards formed by single storey agricultural buildings. Together with the C18 rectory, the site required a challenging intervention to provide housing which both respected & enhanced the historic setting.

The scheme converts the derelict barns into eight stunning residential conversions with a small number of new build homes, arranged to enhance the courtyard form to increase the development to 12 overall.

The barn conversions avoid an over-domesticated treatment by retaining the robust detailing and form of the previous agricultural use. Original openings were respected, the scale of internal spaces retained and materials carefully matched to the existing.

Inside, open plan layouts and high-specification finishes provide a powerful contrast to the exposed original frames and brickwork with dramatic double-height living spaces.The new housing is contemporary in design providing a subtle well-mannered contrast with the existing farmyard buildings. The newbuild designs reflect the variety of scale and composition, expressed in the powerful forms of the large barns and the small scale form of the farmyards.

Client: Hill Partnerships Ltd

Value: £8M

Photography: Matthew Smith