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The worlds of corporate and residential real estate rarely intersect, and while workplaces and homes serve different purposes, they both exist solely to support the people who use them. But the way success is measured in each sector has historically been focused on efficiency and financial returns rather than the experience of those who live or work in these spaces.
Corporate real estate generally benchmarks success against occupancy rates, cost per square foot and space utilisation, often without considering the real impact on the people using those spaces. Similarly in residential real estate, success is typically measured in homes built, sold, or rented – metrics that track supply and demand but reveal little about the quality of life they provide. One housing development on the outskirts of the City of Cambridge, however, is challenging conventional thinking and metrics, prompting us to look outside of our offices to leverage successes and learnings.
Described by one national newspaper as “the quietly radical result” of the city’s first foray into “cohousing”, Marmalade Lane comprises 42 homes that range from one-bedroom flats to five-bedroom houses, and it has become a widely recognised and praised exemplar of community-centred housing. Home to around 100 adults and children, today it has a waiting list of over 400 households – enough to fill the development another nine times over. So, what is so different and special?
Specialist developer TOWN, partnering with Mole Architects, worked closely with future residents throughout the design and planning process to establish a clear understanding of their needs and develop a scheme whereby residents felt a strong sense of ownership. This process was built around various workstreams focussed on separate features of the design, including housing, a common house, the shared external areas and overall environmental performance. TOWN conducted workshops on each workstream, enabling each group to refine their part of the proposals for the site and steer the emerging collective output to the point of a planning application. Construction started in mid-2017 and was completed at the end of 2018. Although the architecture and planning of the development clearly differ from typical developments, the impact on the small community five years after moving in is what stands out.
The scheme has a host of features designed to encourage the community to come together, and the evidence shows it’s doing just that.
First is the strong sense of neighbourliness and belonging. Some of the standout numbers include 98% of residents saying they “regularly stop and talk with people in the neighbourhood”, and 96% saying they “feel they could go to a neighbour if they need advice about something”. Active involvement in tenant and social groups, reported by 73% and 76% of residents respectively, demonstrates that residents care about their development and want to actively participate in running it.
The scheme has a host of features designed to encourage the community to come together, and the evidence shows it’s doing just that. 67% of residents use the shared garden for gardening, 16 households have opted into a car share scheme, sharing just one car among them, and 32 households are making use of a shared central laundry rather than having a washing machine take up space in their own kitchens.
Marmalade Lane also features a host of other shared facilities, including a workshop, a common house (which residents consider an extension to their own home), a shared cargo bike, a shared workshop with tool sharing, a community shop, a laundry, a large shared central garden, a play street and three guest rooms for visitors.
The construction phase of the scheme leveraged off-site manufacturing, partnering with a Swedish housing developer specialising in energy-efficient, factory-made timber construction. This construction method not only noticeably reduced the construction programme, lessening disruption to surrounding streets, it also vastly reduced the carbon impact of the development and dramatically reduces the future running costs for residents.
In addition to taking this untraditional approach to construction location, the builders also leveraged tried and tested advances in construction materials technology rather than relying on traditional brick and masonry construction, one of which was structural cross-laminated timber (CLT). CLT is a wood panel product made from glueing together layers of solid-sawn timber commonly used in construction projects for large-scale floor or wall panels. During manufacturing, each layer of timber is oriented perpendicular to the adjacent layer and bonded together with glue. Panels are then machined so they are delivered to site ready to install with holes for fixings, wire runs, pipe apertures or with services already in place.
The scheme was delivered with a build cost below average for its building type, reminding us that terraced homes are less expensive to build per unit than tower blocks.
CLT panels can be manufactured up to 3.2m wide by 20m in length. While Marmalade Lane is owned by its residents, it very well could be cast as a prototype for how governments approach social housing given the increasing shortages in the UK and elsewhere. The scheme achieves an occupant density of 60 dwellings per hectare (net), where the average across Greater London is 24, and it was delivered with a build cost below average for its building type, reminding us that terraced homes are less expensive to build per unit than tower blocks.
Marmalade Lane proves that when you involve those who will use a space in the process and measure what matters in residential real estate – community engagement, well-being, and long-term liveability – you can dramatically impact the residents’ experience. The success of this development isn’t just in the number of homes built and sold but in the sense of belonging and pride among residents.
For too long, industry benchmarks have focused on measures like occupant density, utilisation rates and cost per square foot – measures that fail to capture the real value of a workplace.
Corporate real estate executives face a similar challenge when it comes to metrics. For too long, industry benchmarks have focused on measures like occupant density, utilisation rates and cost per square foot – measures that fail to capture the real value of a workplace. The result is spaces optimised for efficiency rather than experience, missing the opportunity to impact employee satisfaction, productivity and overall business performance.
At Aéto, we’re helping our clients define new, value-based metrics and rethink how success is measured. Instead of solely relying on metrics like occupancy rates or cost savings, we’re helping clients identify and track indicators that align with a space’s contribution to business performance. By doing so, you can move beyond cost-cutting and space optimisation to create workplaces that deliver lasting value and play a pivotal role in helping achieve business objectives.