Lancaster, Summer Works 2021
The continuation of a rolling programme of refurbishment works of the on-campus student accommodation at Lancaster University. A three-phased renovation scheme of 12 buildings with a general make up of 8 student residential flats in each property.
This was a large development involving full decorations and new flooring throughout 12 student accommodation blocks as well as a complete strip out and installation of 43 kitchens within 6 of the 12 properties. The kitchen upgrades included a full M&E package, pipework and plumbing alterations, new LED lighting and new fire collars in the cleaner’s cupboard, where new waste pipes penetrate through the riser to the waste stack, new flooring and full decorations.
A total of 43 kitchens, 768 bedrooms, 12 stairwell and 75 corridors were refreshed across all 12 blocks. Throughout the phases of this challenging 10-week programme, Harris Evolution performed the role of Principal Contractor, managing all trades, health & safety, quality control, programme management, material procurement, access arrangements and full installations, whilst the clients design team provided specifications and drawings.
Sector:
Higher Education | Student Accommodation
Location:
Lancaster
Duration:
10 weeks
As this project was completed during the COVID-19 pandemic, extra safety measures were put in place to maintain safe working practices.
A rotary system was employed throughout each phase, limiting the number of trades people within each building at any given time. Multiple phases were run in tandem to provide adequate social distancing and management was increased to carefully coordinate works between the different stages of this project.
As part of our conscious effort to reduce the environmental degradation, a large portion of the white goods taken from the kitchen replacements were refurbished and supplied on through a charity shop to low-income families in the Merseyside area.
CREATE UK who were employed to salvage the white goods, specialise in providing paid work for local, long-term, unemployed, adults who carry out the refurbishments under supervision of their engineers.
In addition, only water-based paints were used throughout this project as a greener alternative to oil-based paints and LED lights were installed to improve energy efficiency.