海角视频

Highbury II – 295 Holloway Road

London, UK

海角视频 played a key role in delivering an innovative modular approach to construction that allowed a student housing development to be realised despite the challenges posed by the North London site鈥檚 constraints.

Highbury II, previously known as 295 Holloway Road, is a development of 257 student flats set across 13 storeys. It occupies a tightly constrained space next to Holloway Road Underground Station.

The development of 257 student flats occupies a tightly constrained space next to Holloway Road Underground Station.

A bespoke stacking modular system was developed for the building around a concrete core.

This allowed rapid construction and delivery a whole academic year earlier than would have been possible with conventional construction.

The energy strategy for the building was developed to meet the London Plan requirements of 35% improvement over Part L and BREEAM 鈥楨xcellent鈥�.

Challenge

The tight site presented several challenges for the construction, including an adjacent Transport for London red (TfL) route, the adjoining Holloway Road Tube station, with Piccadilly line platforms, tunnels and a critical substation, with no space for a site compound outside the building footprint.

Another key consideration was that a fire escape from the Tube had to be maintained throughout construction.

One of the initial challenges was ensuring that the foundations for the building could be safely piled around the complex subterranean constraints created by both the Underground tunnel network and its electrical substation and associated infrastructure.

Our structural engineers would need to provide expertise to ensure the robustness and resiliency of both the main core of the building, but also its successful integration with the modular elements, including services alignments.

An additional key element of our scope around building services engineering (MEP) was to support the client and wider design team to make the development as energy efficient as possible, lowering both operational costs and the carbon intensity of the scheme.

Solution

Through liaison with Transport for London (TfL) and extensive ground modelling, 海角视频 developed a foundation design that mitigated against impacting the TfL assets. Ultimately, it was this work that led to the site鈥檚 full potential being unlocked. Our team also conducted a series of ground movement and risk assessments to ensure the resiliency of the TfL infrastructure as well as the new and surrounding buildings.

The limited area for material storage was resolved by using fully fitted out prefabricated volumetric modular units for all residential elements of the building above level one. This allowed rapid construction and delivery a whole academic year earlier than would have been possible with conventional construction. A modular approach was also taken to the design of the facade panels to minimise the need for space at the site boundary.

The bespoke stacking modular system was developed for the building around a concrete core. Steel framed modular units were constructed in factory conditions and delivered to the site as complete bedroom and ensuite bathroom pods, complete with a bed and mattress in place. These could then be craned in, slid on to the concrete base of the floor and welded into place using plates set against the steel core members of the building.

The system gave the architect flexibility to work around the required geometries of the building to produce different modular units where required.

Some elements of the MEP systems could also be delivered using this modular approach, with the plumbing for each unit, for example, being ready to 鈥減lug in鈥� to the building systems. Our multidisciplinary team was then responsible for coordinating the systems down through the transfer slabs.

The energy strategy for the building was developed to meet the London Plan requirements of 35% improvement over Part L and BREEAM 鈥楨xcellent鈥�. This was achieved through the use of heat recovery on all ventilation systems, highly efficient facades, and solar PV panels at roof level. To further reduce the building鈥檚 impact on the environment, the concrete was specified to maximise the use of recycled aggregates and cement replacements.

Value

The use of the bespoke modular design brought a range of benefits 鈥� not only providing the reliability of an off-site factory finish to elements, but actually enabling the project to be realised given the considerable constraints of the site.

It also allowed for a more rapid construction process. Compared to traditional construction techniques, the building was finished a whole academic year ahead, delivering a significant client return on investment by allowing students to move in a year earlier than would otherwise have been possible.