Student Accommodation Block

Ubu design working with The Big Sur Properties limited and Flanagan Lawrence Architects have provided landscape input in support of a planning application for a new 5 storey student accommodation block.  Providing approximately 3,500 sq.m of space the scheme includes 90 studio apartments, a range of internal and external communal amenity spaces and an enhanced landscape setting responding to the dual frontages of Walnut Tree Close and The River Wey.

The site currently consists of warehousing with light industrial use.  The project brief is for a new build, student residential accommodation building and associated landscape spaces close to the University of Surrey and the centre of Guildford.

The brief embraces energy efficient design solutions and encourages the use of low carbon energy sources; maximises the use of natural daylight and ventilation and is orientated to make best use of the site and its aspect. A car free model is proposed for the scheme, with a minimal on-site parking provision for deliveries, maintenance vehicles and occasional visitors.

The scheme is also designed for climate resilience, especially in respect to the proximity to the River Wey and the existing / future flood risk on the site.

An integrated design approach has been used for the architecture and landscape to maximise the unique opportunity of this location and to create a strong relationship between the building and its immediate landscape setting. This approach has provided a holistic response to this new urban development and resulted in a building that is embedded into the site and surrounding context.

The use of columnar trees in the landscape adjacent to the Walnut Tree Close façade creates a strong relationship between the vertical rhythm of the building. The landscape has also been used to provide continuity to the streetscape between the development and an adjacent scheme – Wey Corner, with ornamental planting used to provide a human scale to this active frontage.

For the riverside frontage, a more ‘fluid’ design approach has been taken, responding to the context of the River Wey and reflected in the form of the surfaces and articulated with indigenous planting.  This more naturalistic response to the planting further embraces the riverside setting.