Stirling Prize-winning practice Mikhail Riches has secured planning permission at appeal for a Passivhaus-standard student-housing development in Cambridge.

The scheme will see the demolition of a nursery building and other structures at Queens’ College’s Owlstone Croft site in the suburb of Newnham Croft. Meanwhile, four three-storey housing blocks with 13 individual houses that deliver a total of 60 student rooms for postgraduates would be built on a lawned area of the site.

Mikhail Riches’ plans would see the refurbishment of retained structures, keeping 87 student rooms but boosting the fabric of the buildings and improving thermal performance. New extensions to the locally-listed Owlstone House, which was built in 1881, will provide communal facilities including a student study room, a seminar room, meeting spaces, a gym, laundrette, a café and a kitchen.

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