Hanover and Princess Court is the comprehensive regeneration of a 1960s council estate within Cambridge’s New Town and Glisson Road Conservation Area, a short walk from Parker’s Piece and the city centre. Built in 1968, the estate had deteriorated to the point that the City Council judged it no longer fit for purpose, with ageing slab blocks and a blank, partly sunken garage presenting an unwelcoming face to the surrounding streets.

The proposals replace the estate with 165 new homes, 45% of them affordable, arranged as four buildings of four to six storeys around a generous landscaped heart. With a footprint close to that of the existing buildings, the scheme opens up new routes and views through the site and creates a connected network of gardens, play and community spaces.

MOOWD led the landscape architecture alongside Pollard Thomas Edwards, applying our Living Infrastructure approach so that landscape acts as essential urban infrastructure for health, biodiversity, climate resilience and placemaking. We also led the landscape response through planning, refining the tree, planting and green roof strategies with the Local Planning Authority.