Property: Homes with a degree of excellence: When a Cambridge college decided to build houses, the result was first class. Anne Spackman reports

A WIMPEY housing development normally takes 12 to 18 months from drawing board to completion. St John's College, Cambridge, decided to do one six years ago; it will be finished this week.

The time was not swallowed up by academic debate. It was filled with meeting after meeting between the college, the architect, the developer and the agents, to get every detail right, even down to the woodwork on the bannisters. The result is the Cambridge Crescent, a sweep of three-storey terraced houses around a semi-circular lake that are on the market for around pounds 170,000 each.

Land and housing in the centre of Cambridge is always in short supply and heavy demand, as students and academics arriving this week will have discovered. In the west end of the city the colleges swallow up the few sites that become available.

The Crescent was one of the most central, sitting between Churchill College, St John's College School and New Hall. It seemed inevitable that it would be turned into academic accommodation. Much of it was: two blocks, containing 38 flats and an appropriate number of bike sheds, have gone up and are now being occupied. But St John's decided to build a modern housing development for sale to the public as well.

Usually that would mean a mixture of two-storey semis and detached houses in red brick with pantile roofs: it is difficult to find anything more radical without having to commission your own architect, and that requires plenty of courage, confidence and cash. In addition, builders seem slow to recognise that families no longer fit neatly into the conventional three bedrooms, kitchen and living room layout. Young families want living space by the kitchen; older families often want a teenage ghetto - and an office or study is increasingly important, particularly in a city such as Cambridge.

The architect of the Crescent was John Blair, director of Saunders Boston, whose previous work for the university includes the Sidney Sussex library and the Fisher conference centre for St John's. He enjoyed an unusual amount of freedom, but while his clients were enlightened, they were also rigorous. 'We did dozens of layouts. We started at A, B and C and got at least as far as P, Q and R,' he says. 'I've never attended so many meetings for one project.'

Defining features of the development are the central lake, 'stone' columns, black steel balconies and slate roofs. Inside, Mr Blair has created two distinct types of house. The 'Merton' has a kitchen, utility and family room on the ground floor, two bedrooms and two bathrooms on the top floor and three rooms on the first floor that can be used flexibly. The 'Pearmain' has a study/bedroom with a bathroom and utility on the ground floor, a kitchen, dining area and living room on the first floor and three bedrooms and two bathrooms on the top floor. The end houses, the 'Russets', are a slight variation on the same theme.

The houses take their names from apples because they are built on the college's former orchard. (Yes, there was a meeting to decide on the names of the apples.)

There were battles over both the exteriors and interiors. Mr Blair had to work hard to get his balconies past the college. He also got his way on the detail of the wooden bannisters, but lost on the panelled doors; he wanted a pine wood finish, but they have been painted white.

The key players - Mr Blair, Peter Clark, the developer, and the estate agents Carter Jonas and Redmayne Arnold Harris - went to a warehouse to choose the bathrooms. 'We thought we couldn't possibly have anything but white. We are assuming the people who are buying will feel the same,' Mr Blair says.

The kitchens have been designed by the German company Poggenpohl and in some houses actually feature true family-sized fridges.

Most developers feel they cannot take the commercial risk of building boldly designed houses. But a couple of architects' practices have made a reputation in this field and been rewarded both professionally and financially. One is Jane Darbyshire Associates in Newcastle, which has made its name for work in the arts and crafts tradition. The practice is involved in a small, prestigious project at Aykley Heads, near Durham, where again the stimulus for excellence has been an enlightened developer, Peter Candler of Rivergreen.

The site at Aykley Heads consists of four houses based on converted farm buildings - stone barns and byres - and four new houses. The first was sold in the first week of January and the last six weeks later.

Peter Candler involved the architects and prominent local craftsmen in the interiors. The staircases, kitchens and internal doors were made by a fine furniture builder, Stephen Down, to the architect's design. The leaded windows are of hand-made glass by a firm in Sunderland and the bedroom furniture is hand-painted.

The eight houses at Aykley Heads sold for between pounds 270,000 and pounds 300,000. In Cambridge they must wait to see how successfully the Crescent will sell. Three out of the 16 houses have gone and the agents report a serious interest in several more, some of it from investment purchasers. Richard Hatch of Carter Jonas has no worries about the development: 'It's unique. There's nothing to compete with it in Cambridge.'

Cambridge Crescent sales office (0223 301365); Jane Darbyshire Associates (091-286 0811).

(Photograph omitted)