Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge .

Appointed by Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge to undertake the design of the refurbishment and remodelling of The Aston Webb Building.

The project is situated on Market Square, a grade II, five storey halls of residence including basement and a retail plinth of 7 shops. Over six staircases and a combination of 45 bedrooms, fellows study spaces and gyps, Clearwater are designing to provide new electrical services, IT infrastructure, security throughout and new ventilation, drainage, and domestic water to the bathrooms and catering facilities that are to be introduced as part of the remodelling. These systems are integrated with the architecture to retain the heritage features and historic building aesthetics. With enhanced insulation and glazing, new lighting, heating controls, and the introduction of roof mounted air source heat pumps with a move from gas to electricity as the primary fuel the target is to substantially reduce the current energy consumption. 

As part of the design Clearwater have modelled and estimated the reduction to assist the Quantity Surveyor in appraising the payback period.

With the works being carried out with the retail units remaining open, this has resulted in meticulous preparation and co-ordination between the Clearwater, the Architect and Client to ensure the services including heating, electrical services and drainage are maintained along with upgrades to the size of the electrical supplies to the retail units from UKPN. Careful consideration has been required to the retail units to minimise any disruption such as the drainage dropping from the new bathrooms above and to provide connection to the below ground systems.