Our Projects

This Passivhaus-certified student community for St John’s College, Cambridge, provides 245 student rooms arranged in 39 townhouses, which will house students from St John’s, Lucy Cavendish, and Clare Hall.

The townhouses are arranged as terraces around generous shared gardens, preserving as many existing trees as possible. A new lane runs through the site, connecting Wilberforce Road to Herschel Road.

Optimised for environmental performance, the buildings capture winter solar gains and reduce summer overheating with shading. Red brick, clay tile, and reconstituted stone ensure the buildings will age gracefully and blend into the conservation area.

Each house has a ground floor kitchen, dining and living area with separate WC, utility area and terrace. The scheme was built to Passivhaus certification for which modelling predicts a 74% reduction in heating demand over a building regs compliant baseline.

MBS provided the full MEP design and build for this project and is one of the largest Passivhaus projects in Europe.