RECENT MULTI-ROOM COMPLETIONS
Despite working under a wide range of Covid-19 related restrictions, Winvic has continued to deliver and deliver safely. A total of 27 schemes reached practical completion in the 12 months between March 2020 and March 2021, including the following multi-room projects.
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Parkside, Coventry
We completed almost half of the 502 luxury student bedrooms, as well as the ground floor and 16,000 sq ft basement communal areas, including the gym, cinema and karaoke room, for client UNINN in September, ready for the new term. The remainder of the cluster bedrooms and 164 one-bed studios in the 19-storey tower reached practical completion with the external works at the end of November, two weeks ahead of the programme. Logistics was the single biggest challenge due a confined site; sandwiched between the Coventry ring road to the north, a large traffic island to the west and a residential property to the east, the highway along the front of the building was the only access route. Access to the tallest tower at the back of the project was through a single width, 4m high pass through the front building and onto the podium deck. The scheme also comprises 1,110 sq ft retail space, a rooftop bar/terrace on level 19 and study areas, and boasts a high quality façade made up of various shades and textures of rainscreen cladding and brickslips, with two fully glazed link bridges connecting the bridges over five floors.
Bath Lane, Leicester
Handed over to Leicester Lettings Ltd in March 2021, this construction and fit out, build-to-rent project comprises 256 one bedroom and 128 two bedroom apartments within three towers that will reach to 10, 14 and 16 storeys high. The site, a 68,000 sq ft long-standing vacant area, is located just outside the city centre ring road and borders the Grand Union Canal. Residents will soon be able to enjoy the stunning views afforded by the large floor to ceiling windows as well as a multi-storey raised podium outdoor space, and have access to the ground floor commercial unit and under croft car park.
Student Castle, Oxford
The first reinforced concrete framed multi-room project that we have completed is adjacent to the city’s railway station and the first project in the large Oxpens gateway. Inspiration for the external design of the 515 bed student apartment scheme has been taken from Oxford’s rich medieval history and its famous collegial quadrangles, featuring courtyards, gardens, cloisters, colonnades and cantilevered storeys on one block. We utilised glass reinforced concrete for the façade; an innovative, BREEAM A+ rated material that is approximately 80% lighter than pre-cast steel reinforced concrete cladding and is more environmentally friendly, due to the reduced CO2 emissions during the manufacturing process. Students are now settled into the three principal blocks, ranging from five to six storeys, that also house a gym, games area, lounge, private meeting rooms, roof terraces and a store for 290 bikes.
Magdalen Street, Colchester
Another project completed for the start of the 2020 academic year, we handed over this 252 bedroomed-scheme to Tiger Developments and award-winning student accommodation provider, Host. Comprising self-contained studios, en-suite cluster apartments, communal facilities and a laundrette as well as a seminar room and study spaces, the project spans three, four-storey blocks. We delivered the student accommodation on a turnkey contract, meaning infrastructure, construction, fit out, service installations and S278 highway works as well as soft and hard landscaping were completed in 71 weeks.
A YEAR IN INDUSTRY AT WINVIC
Conah Langham, Year In Industry Student, Trainee Site Engineer
“I spent the year working at Parkside as a Trainee Site Engineer, therefore my responsibilities revolved around the dimensional and engineering control on the site, ensuring that quality standards and designs are met. Having this great YII experience means I will definitely learn in a different way for my final university year and I’m in a stronger position to achieve my target of first-class honours. It’s great to know that despite not being onsite with Winvic this year, I will always be able to get in touch with the team.”
A UNIQUE CITY SCHEME
The Newhall Square to Build-to-Rent (BTR) scheme in the heart of Birmingham – handed over to IM Properties in March 2020, the first during lockdown – tells a complex story, where blending new construction with Grade II Listed buildings was just one of many exceptional challenges.
Our brief was to design and build two new apartment blocks, the first comprising 79 units, a residents’ clubhouse and an undercroft car park, the second containing 138 apartments and six townhouses as well as commercial spaces. Simultaneously, we were to refurbish and extend two Grade II listed buildings and a listed façade to house further apartments, but many challenges were related to the ground and what lay underneath. Located adjacent to Birmingham and Fazeley canal, the site had suffered due to heavy industrial use, so we undertook a significant amount of remediation. We also ensured the canal and towpath remained open throughout the works so while we installed substructures, some 3 metres below the water level, we installed temporary structures to support the canal walls. And did you know an extensive network of BT service tunnels run 25 metres underneath Birmingham? To resolve this challenge, we designed and constructed complex underground bridging structures, and we’re also applying our expertise on Lionel House, another BTR scheme that’s around the corner from Newhall Square. The scheme was recognised at the virtual Midlands Insider Residential Property Awards 2020, winning Apartment and Development of the Year.
Rob Addis, Design Manager
“The Newhall Square project required a very different approach to any other I had previously worked on as the interface between old and new was not at all conventional and exciting. Every section of the scheme was unique with its own complications as well as structural and architectural intricacies. The site itself was also full of exceptional constraints and challenges, from first remediating contaminated ground to not being able to gain a crane oversailing licence. Looking at things through fresh eyes and being flexible were certainly the overarching philosophies of our design and constructions teams for this scheme.”
