Crown House

Huddersfield

A new development of luxury student accommodation designed to complement the new Health and Innovation campus at Huddersfield University.

The proposed scheme is a renovation of an 11-storey office block, into student accommodation. The ground floor will be dedicated to amenities and the basement will house parking and cycle storage. Floors 1-9 will provide 198 residential units; this comprises of 100% studio apartments. Residents will have their own private studio. Studios range in size from 20m2 to 31m2. Each studio comes with an en-suite bathroom, desk, convenient plug sockets, wifi and kitchen facilities, alongside built-in storage. All studio apartments benefit from roof garden and other amenities, such as a gym, cinema, study space and cafe. Reflecting the materiality of the neighbouring buildings, the primary material is stone cladding, as it is used widely in Huddersfield, which juxtaposes against the copper effect of the entrance cladding and the glazed wall of the new Health and Innovation Campus building. The vertical clad panels help to break up the horizontal mass of the building, as well as double up as solar shading.

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The materials for the scheme have been carefully chosen, to reflect the character and the context of the surrounding area. Many contemporary buildings in the surrounding area, tend to opt for glazing as the main material in their palette. We felt that in order to harmonise more closely with both the neighbouring 18th / 19th Century industrial buildings and the historic Town Centre, a high quality bespoke colour coated finish, to compliment local stone, would be more appropriate in this instance, for the circulation towers. The stone is accented using a bespoke colour coated copper effect finish, to frame the entrance way and draws upon the same colour palette as the neighbouring red-brick buildings. The soft grey aluminium cladding is blending in with the windows behind the solar shading panels, to create a cohesive backdrop for a design element that echoes the solar shading used on the oyster building, south of the site.