Mile End Road

This project is for the design and construction of over 600 student rooms together with teaching facilities.

The brief

Design and construct 631 rooms for student accommodation plus associated teaching facilities.

What we did

The student rooms are being fully fitted out with kitchenettes, furniture and fixtures with en-suite shower/toilet pods. The teaching areas will be completed as decorated 'shells', with all services and data requirements terminated adjacent to each space, ready for the incorporation into the finished fit-out of the areas. 

The main building form is as a series of connected blocks, with differing external envelope treatments, including facing brickwork and metal cladding systems, with punched windows to the student rooms and areas of glazing forming vertical separations. The structure is a combination of pre-cast concrete frame and lightweight metal frame; the lightweight solution was developed as a response to the proximity of the two London Underground lines, running close to part of the frontage to Mile End Road.

With near complete site coverage, access and buildability issues required early consultations with both Tower Hamlets Borough Council and Transport for London (Mile End Road is a 'red route', together with an agreed carnage strategy to enable delivery, uploading and incorporation into the ongoing works of the pre-cast components and structural steelwork elements, etc.

 Overall, the building has been designed for modern methods of construction, with a significant contribution from off-site manufacture. 

The results

Sustainability issues are addresed by such elements as green roofs, ground-source heat pumps, and a combined heat and power installation. Our early design and procurement involvement with the scheme began in August 2009, the project is due for completion in August 2011.