Work is proceeding on a high performance graduate campus project for Kings College Cambridge, in the form of two new graduate accommodation builds. These are part of a new unified graduate campus on Cranmer Road, designed by Allies and Morrison.

Both of the new student accommodation blocks are designed to achieve an exemplary environmental performance with an ‘all-electric’ approach and are set to become the first major development in Cambridge to achieve Passivhaus certification.

Recoup_WWHRS, via merchant supply partner: Wolseley, have delivered a variety of Waste Water Hear Recovery Systems (WWHRS) for Showers, which will form an integral part of the energy efficiency mix for this project.

The two new buildings consist of a garden wing of 40 bedrooms and a new building along Cranmer Road of 19 bedrooms, increasing the overall capacity of the site by 60%. They will sit alongside two existing hostels, originally late Victorian, which will continue to house graduate students.

WWHRS will be attached to each of the student en-suite shower rooms, in order to significantly reduce the hot water and running costs at the site. The site is designed to utilise site-assembled bathroom pods, alongside the Recoup Pipe+ HE for all showers 1st floor and above. For the ground floor showers, the bathroom pods, supplied by showering solutions provider: Taplanes, have been modified to accommodate the Recoup Easyfit+. DDA  enabled  bathrooms at the site will utilise the WWHRS integrated shower tray, the Recoup Tray+ DSS-S2, recessed to allow for wheelchair access.

Uniquely, and to help maintain these developments’ sustainability and Passivhaus credentials, M&E consultants: Max Fordham, have designed the DHW system to be supplied by individual instantaneous electric water heaters. By using waste heat energy from the outgoing shower waste, and using this heat energy to heat the incoming cold water main. WWHRS will supply to both the water heaters and the cold-side of the shower mixer, and reduce the energy requirements for each shower us by up to 55%.

As a Passivhaus Certified Component Database listed technology, WWHRS can also be used with PHPP calculations to help achieve Passivhaus certification.

This development by will bring together, in one place, all of King’s graduate accommodation, transforming a series of individual hostels into a cohesive campus around a shared garden.