Concrete crescents to bulk up Birmingham University

Students at the University of Birmingham will be greeted with a new student residence when they start the new academic year.

Norwest Holst is putting the finishing touches to the £37m redevelopment, which replaces the existing Mason Hall accommodation in the Vale of Edgbaston.

The former building has been demolished and the new scheme being built will house more than 800 students.

Mason Student Residences comprises of six buildings, ranging from four to six storeys in height, laid out in three crescents alongside a lake on The Vale student village at the University of Birmingham.

The site is within the Edgbaston conservation area and also a registered ‘park and garden’.

Inside the buildings, 876 studybedrooms, all with en-suitefacilities, provide contemporary living in six bedroom flats, each flat having its own kitchen/dining/lounge area.

There are also a number of self-contained studio apartments to the top levels of the crescents. The layout of each flat consists of three study/bedrooms on each side of a corridor, opening out to the full width kitchen/dining/lounge area.

Norwest Holst won the twostage tender process to build the £37m development, which is due to open for students at the start of the next academic year (autumn 2008).

The buildings are constructed of precast concrete panels forming the walls and floors of the rooms and the en-suite shower rooms manufactured off site and built into the structure as complete pods.

All the buildings are clad in timber veneer rainscreen panels chosen to blend with the local, wooded landscape fixed on an external insulated support system fixed to the pre-cast units once they are in place.

Windows have been set out to maximise the views from the rooms with high and lower level windows to each study bedroom presenting views both when entering the room at standing height and also when sitting at the study desk which is situated on the external wall.

Services are provided by a remote, buried ‘energy centre’ containing heating boilers, electrical sub station and main water supply tanks and a district heating system then supplies radiators in the student accommodation. All rooms are provided with network connectivity.

The form of construction allows for a high degree of thermal insulation and the exposed thermal mass of the building structures benefit the environmental performance.

The windows are constructed from GRP, which provided the most energy efficient solution in terms of both manufacture and life cycle.