Delivering high-quality student accomodation for the University of Reading, UK

The campus is located to the south of Reading Town Centre and is approximately 123 hectares. It was originally constructed in the 1960’s and extended in 1971.

The new structures consist of four pre-cast concrete cluster building and 16 light guage steel frame townhouses, clad in an acrylic render with brick panel at lower levels, acrylic render at higher levels and a mixture of UPVc and timber windows.

Solar hot water systems were installed on the flat profiled metal sheet roofing systems to maximise sustainability of the development. The total number of student bedrooms have been increased to 649 with predominantly shared bathroom pods, kitchen and dining areas. The gross internal floor area is now 15,000m2.

A Facilities Management Centre was also constructed in a structural steel frame with brick at lower levels and acrylic render cladding at higher levels. The Centre will be the students hub for laundry facilities, office facilities, meeting and function rooms.

Multiplex introduced light gauge steel in lieu of the original timber-framed structure. The steel external panels were pre-insulated which enabled the external façade to be installed quicker which resulted in the project completing 11 weeks ahead of programme. The early completion enabled the University to offer summer language courses to an extra 250 students.

Also in residence at the halls is a local bat population. We worked with an Ecology Consultant to temporarily relocate the bats during the construction phase to 26 bat roosts scattered throughout the development. At project completion, the bats were re-housed in a specifically designed bat roost within the new building fabric. The project site also contains a large number of trees which were protected and retained throughout the construction phase.