Student Residences Selected Projects FraserBrownMacKennaArchitects
Student Residences
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FraserBrownMacKennaArchitects
Student Residences
Fraser Brown MacKenna Architects is an award winning, design-led and commercially aware architectural practice with considerable experience creating high quality student residences. Recently completed schemes include an 800 room development for the University of East London and a 500 unit scheme in Hackney for the University of the Arts, London. Our 200 room development on a historic site in Greenwich for Cathedral Group won a prestigious Housing Design Award. In addition to our experience creating new residences, we have experience in retrofit and refurbishment. We have recently completed the refurbishment of Kingston Bridge House for Kingston University. Our award winning practice has a broad portfolio of schemes working for some of the UK’s leading universities and commercial providers that meet a variety of student residential experiences, ranging from undergraduate to post-graduate accommodation, tutor flats, ‘student hubs’ and conference facilities. Fleming Hall for Brunel University provides 350 study bedrooms on a greenfield on-campus location. Fraser Brown MacKenna acted as Lead Design Consultant and were novated to the contractor, Mount Anvil.
provides 800 study bedrooms on a complex and acoustically challenging site adjacent to London City Airport and bounded by the Docklands Light Railway.
Student Residences
Will Wyatt Court provides 500 units on a brownfield site for the University of the Arts, London on an inner city brownfield site. We were lead Design Consultants. Ashburnham 3 is a development of 200 units on a heritage site in Greenwich. We achieved planning consent after working closely with local heritage groups. The site lies within a conservation area and opposite the oldest surviving town house in the borough. The scheme won a prestigious Housing Design Award. In 2012 our Ravenscourt House in Hammersmith was commended in the Housing Design Awards. The scheme provides 234 study bedrooms on a conservation area site. We have considerable experience creating new University and College buildings as well as award winning major residential developments. For more information or to arrange a presentation of our recent work, please contact Simon Fraser, Angus Brown or Phillip Dawson on 020 7251 0543 or email sf@fbmarchitects.com
The Royal Docks Student Residences for The University of East London were completed in two phases. Fraser Brown MacKenna acted as Lead Design Consultant from inception to completion and were novated to BAM Construction. The development
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Conservation Area
Winner of a Housing Design Awards, the development provides 234 student rooms and a nursery in a sensitive location on the edge of two conservation areas in Hammersmith. The site on Paddenswick Road lies within the mainly residential Ravenscourt Park area of Hammersmith and adjoins two conservation areas. The existing building dates from the early twentieth century and was used as a police section house until 1996 and since that time as a hostel. Initially a retrofit option was explored, however the number of internal level changes would be costly to resolve and the poor thermal quality of the building envelope meant retaining the façade was inviable. It was decided that in the long-term, the more sustainable option would be to redevelop the site; however the existing buildings remained a key design driver.
Ravenscourt House provided an obvious starting point; the volume and articulation of the hostel was an established and admired feature of the townscape and while the façade could not be retained, we were keen to carry through the relevant and positive attributes to inform the language of the new buildings, particularly through the detailing of the brickwork. Our proposals are arranged into three volumes of reducing height, the tallest on the principal frontage to Paddenswick Road, linked together at ground floor level. This simplified plan responds to the surrounding grain and creates a slender profile to each of the buildings, with landscaped courtyards between that enhance views and maximise natural light.
Student Residences
Student Residences + Nursery Ravenscourt Halls Hammersmith • • • •
Edge of conservation area Brownfield site Student residences Nursery
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Student Residences
Whilst the overall height of the new building is lower than the existing hostel, the new development offers more accommodation; 234 selfcontained studio bedrooms together with communal facilities and a nursery for the adjoining John Betts Primary School. The design of the new buildings is a contextual response. We developed an architectural language that draws on recognisable characteristics of the surrounding Victorian and Edwardian buildings but does not seek to imitate particular styles. Brick is the principal material, with changes in tone and different bonds used to create subtle variations between the three volumes. The principal frontage to Paddenswick Road is the most dynamic. A white ground floor plinth gives way to three floors of highly modelled brickwork with projected headers within the Flemish Bond. This energy is enhanced through chamfered window surrounds and two storey projecting bays. The double height windows provide a strong vertical emphasis; an echo of the former Section House.
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The fourth and fifth storeys are less heavily modelled and capped by a band of intricately detailed brickwork with the headers removed, announcing the material change to the uppermost storeys which are clad in zinc and recessed from the main footprint. The frontage to John Betts Primary School provides a new nursery on the ground floor, accessible from the school grounds; its entrance announced by a slender canopy. Two storeys of highly modelled buff London Stock brick are set under the uppermost storey, clad in zinc – the proportions and material treatment respecting the neighbouring building, a former school house. High level windows allow natural light into the corridors but avoid overlooking the playground.
Student Residences
Typical Study Bedroom Plan - 15.8sqm
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Student Residences
Securing planning consent on this prestige site adjoining two conservation areas required a richly textured faรงade. The high value site meant the development maximised the site boundary, leaving little room for manoeuvre during construction. Realising a building of this quality within cost and programme requirements and overcoming the operational constraints imposed by the restricted site conditions, required an innovative approach to delivery. We employed a pre-fabricated faรงade solution to overcome these challenges, working with Thorpe Pre-cast to develop construction details. Each panel incorporated the rich variety of brickwork treatments and textured pre-cast concrete features and were delivered to site complete with insulation and vertical and horizontal firestopping.
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Off site manufacture meant no requirement for material storage on site and a significant reduction in material waste. The 260 facade panels were all completed to a high standard with an average of eight panels being erected in one day; the envelope watertight within 16 weeks. The largest panels weighted 14 tonnes and were located at the gable ends, incorporating the cantilevered parapet. The use of OSM allowed the concrete frame to progress concurrently with panel manufacture, generating a significant programme saving. Appointed by Abanar LLP and South Street Asset Management, Fraser Brown MacKenna acted as Lead Deswign consultants. The project was commended in the 2012 Housing Design Awards and was completed in September 2014.
City Centre Site
We were appointed following an invited design competition by Capital and Provident Management, who acquired this brownfield site in Hackney. Our brief was to maximise the number of study bedrooms on this constrained, overlooked brownfield site within a high quality development. Will Wyatt Court is purpose-built, high quality student accommodation located in the vibrant Hoxton area of the borough. Built on a 2,800 sqm brownfield site, the accommodation is arranged in a perimeter block, set around a central landscaped courtyard. The building rises to between five and seven storeys. Accommodation for 514 students is provided by en-suite study bedrooms arranged into cluster flats, which range from four bedroom to ten bedroom in size.
Rooms are arranged on size floors around a courtyard terrace. Each flat has a shared kitchen and living area that benefit from vast amounts of daylight that flood through the generous floor to ceiling windows. On the ground and lower ground floor levels, a student ‘hub’ and community space is located, which adds to the buildings active frontage. The community space was fitted out by the Shoreditch Trust and provides a Healthy Living Centre and Natural Birthing Facility.
Student Residences
Student Residences Will Wyatt Court, Hackney
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Brownfield site Student residences 514 study bedrooms £25m contract Mixed use development
The massing of the new building is broken down by a staggered fenestration and wood-effect laminate cladding, installed on a diagonal arrangement. A mirror glass system on the top two storeys further reduces the massing of the building.
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Waterside Site
Lead design consultants for a new £31m student residential development in the London Docklands, Fraser Brown MacKenna are experienced in developing major student accommodation projects on complex and sensitive sites, including green belt settings and flood plains. As a major development in an Olympic Borough occupying a critical site along the dock edge, the design process for this 800 room student village involved close liaison with London Borough of Newham Planners and the Mayor’s Architecture & Urbanism Unit. The project passed detailed scrutiny by CABE’s Design Review panel.
Student Residences
Docklands Student Village University of East London
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£31m contract Complex site next to airport Maximising a limited budget Award winning scheme 7 storey building Use of ‘fast-build’ off site manufactured products
Detailed geotechnical studies were conducted to mitigate the impact of the scheme which also involved close consultation with the Royal Docks Management Authority to meet the requirements of spectators during rowing events and the City Airport, to negate impact on radar and physical safeguarding as well as meeting the requirements of the Docklands Light Railway which bounds the site to the north. Fraser Brown MacKenna have co-ordinated the discharge of a range of complex reserved matters and negotiation of the s106 agreement. Developing the site involved the resolution of technical design issues relating to the flood plain. Whilst the area was protected by nearby alleviation infrastructure serving the Royal Albert Dock and King George V Dock areas, we found the existing ground level of our site to be 500mm below the 100 year flood risk level. Making up the ground level would render the scheme inviable. We therefore worked closely with flood risk consultants and the Environment Agency to gain approval for an attenuation scheme to maintain the existing ground level whilst allowing sufficient time for occupants to escape to a place of safety prior to a flood surge.
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Student Residences
We incorporated minor flood defences into the landscape design around the student union, with a vertical escape strategy triggered by a flood alarm system. This design was approved by the Environment Agency. Accommodation is arranged in five seven storey blocks containing flats connected by a three-storey central spine housing self contained studios. The spine links the single circulation core in each of the larger blocks which are oriented perpendicular to the dock edge. This layout affords the most efficient circulation throughout the development and in addition creates a series of more sheltered north facing courtyards, private to the students, and more public south facing gardens. The entrance to the new student residences complex is via a three storey café-bar pavilion from the waterside piazza. An arcaded route along the south of the cafe-bar joins the covered walkway along the ‘spine’ which provides pedestrian circulation across the site.
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The rectilinear form of the bold 7-storey blocks is softened towards the dock with the plan taking on a gentle sail-like curve. To the north the curved coloured render forms of the kitchens reference the drum forms of the existing accommodation on campus. The roofscape has been considered so as to add interest from the ground and, for users of the airport, from the air. A lightweight metal roof oversails the walls with a recess below, creating interesting shadows along the elevations. The project was carried out in two phases to meet a decant programme from residences on another campus and involved extensive use of Off Site Manufactured products to achieve the target programme, including the use of Bell & Webster Fast Build Rooms. The scheme was completed in April 2007 under a design & build contract let to HBG (now BAM) Construction.
Student Residences
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Student Residences
Herritage Context
Student Halls
Appointed by Cathedral Group, we gained planning approval for a 200 development at Ashburnham 3, in Greenwich on the first attempt, despite the natural reticence towards contemporary architecture, particularly from historic buildings groups and residents associations. The site lies within the historic Ashburnham Triangle Conservation Area and opposite the oldest surviving town house in Greenwich. The project won a prestigious Housing Design Award in 2009.
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Registered in England No. 3996067
Tel: 0870 890 2888 Fax: 020 7436 0573
Close consultation was required throughout the design development phase, with both the heritage and conservation officer from the London Borough of Greenwich, as well as local civic groups including the Greenwich Society and the Ashburnham Triangle Association. Ashburnham 3 is a contextual response to the opportunities presented by this unique site. The scheme draws on recognisable characteristics of its historic setting but does not seek to mimic particular styles.
Housing Design Awards co/ Design for Homes The Building Centre 26 Store Street London WC1E 7BT
Judging is carried out by a panel consisting of 2 representatives from the department of Communities and Local Government, NHBC, RIBA, RTPI and the Homes and Communities Agency. There are two further judges, one from CABE and one from Design for Homes (the rapporteur).
Judging
Schemes completed and occupied since January 2007 may be submitted for a completed scheme award. Previous project award winners will be automatically shortlisted.
Completed schemes
To be eligible, projects must have detailed planning permission, but not yet be complete.
Projects
Each scheme entered must identify relevant contacts from all parties involved in the scheme, including the details or representatives from the local planning authority. Any award made is made to all key parties involved.
Student residences Heritage site Adjoining three listed buildings Opposite the oldest surviving town house in Greenwich • Significant consultation with heritage groups
Promoters
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e-mail: info@hdawards.org www.designforhomes.org/hda
Ashburnham 3 Greenwich
The Greenwich High Road elevation takes the form of three villas, echoing the substantial forms of Miller House and the row of buildings to the south west of the site and on Burgos Grove. Rendered banding provides a visual link between the new forms and the Georgian and late Victorian buildings nearby. The site was sold on to Bellway Homes for residential development and we were commissioned to revise the proposals to provide 63 new apartments. The facade expresses the hierarchy of spaces within, an echo of the surrounding buildings, including Miller House, which use changes in the form of the building to express the uses of the rooms within – the public or principal rooms given more prominence. Features are made from the windows to the most public rooms, with crisp rendered frames providing a modern interpretation of quoins found on buildings within the surrounding townscape.
Student Residences
The site is adjacent to two important listed buildings and opposite Wellington House the oldest surviving town house in the Borough of Greenwich.
“A smart update on the best of the Georgians� Housing Design Awards 2009
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Suburban Setting
Fleming Hall is a competition winning scheme for Brunel University in west London housing 381 students within 52 self contained flats containing between six and ten bedrooms each. The site lies in the north west corner of the campus between the main pedestrian spine and green belt land that forms part of a designated ‘wildlife corridor.’ The cruciform layout is extremely efficient and minimises circulation with four flats off corner lift cores, with level access providing disabled access throughout. Long elevations are punctuated by wings which project forward to define semi-private landscaped forecourts. Access to the building is via the forecourts on the north and south sides. The main entrance to the building is via a controlled entrance. A 23m long glazed reception on the southern elevation incorporates a large oval reception desk and a small conference room. The reception to the north provides a laundry and offices. The external landscaped surface is brought in through the reception, enhancing the connection between the interior and exterior spaces.
The spines and wings projecting north and south are four storey those on the east-west alignment are three storey, allowing winter sunlight into the courtyards. The stair cores are top-lit and form dramatic spaces in the heart of the building, coded with three storey panels of bright colour to aid orientation. The cores lead directly to the flats, which contain between six and ten study-bedrooms and a communal kitchen. Each bedroom has an ensuite facilities. Structurally, precast concrete floors are supported by load bearing brick and block on shortbore piled foundations.
Student Residences
Student Residences Fleming Hall Brunel University
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Student residences Design & Build contract 52 self contained flats £8m contract
Fraser Brown MacKenna designed the scheme and were novated to the main contractor, Mount Anvil Construction during the construction phase and the project was completed on time and on budget
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Sensitive Landscape
Our shortlisted design proposals for this international competition considered a variety of innovative room and block layouts. In student accommodation design there has been a desire to create ever more individualised spaces, with en-suite bathrooms and high speed internet access. Kitchen areas provide a setting for socialisation at a micro-scale but engagement is pre-selected, based on the allocation of accommodation, with access controls that often prevent cross communication between flats. Larger communal spaces such as the conference reception provide a public realm, but there remains a gap in provision for smaller, self-selected friendship groups to meet. This is often a driver in the unpopularity of ‘standard’ student residences to postgraduate and mature students.
Our proposals have sought to reinforce the ‘core’ or staircase as a social unit; to act as a transition between the sense of belonging to an individual flat and an allegiance to the Hall as a whole. The room sizes set out within the brief have provided us with the opportunity to explore the concept of the study bedroom not just as a place to sleep and for individual study, but as a place for selective socialisation. We have provided rooms that are well proportioned, to create a flexible layout that can be reconfigured without an excessive rearrangement of furniture. Considering the study bedroom in this context will allow the new residences to be suitable not only for first year undergraduates, but for students further along their academic careers, who desire space for self-selected social groups to meet.
Student Residences
Student Halls Tocil Pond Halls Warwick
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RIBA Competition Shortlist Sensitive ecological habitats 400 study bedrooms Flexible room layouts Emphasis on the identity of the staircase or ‘core’
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Student Residences University of Chester
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Flood plain Suburban site Innovative house type Village character
Edge of town site
Our shortlisted competition design proposals overcome the challenge of building new student accommodation on a flood plain. The site is split into two parcels, bisected by a trunk road. The western parcel lies adjacent to the canal and overlooks wetlands. The eastern parcel lies within the Finchetts Gutter flood zone. Our approach to each parcel is different and has arisen through an analysis of the opportunities and constraints that exist. Canalside Apartments on the western parcel are formed from part three and part four storey blocks containing en-suite study bedrooms arranged into courtyards, maximizing views across to the canal. A canalside ‘hub’ will be provided adjacent to the embankment to encourage links with the existing campus. The eastern parcel will form “The Village.” Here, we have proposed a terraced house solution, creating a true ‘village’ character. Each house provides communal space on the ground floor and six or eight study bedrooms above, within three storeys, set under a pitched roof.
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Locating the habitable rooms on the ground floor has a number of benefits, including reducing travel distances for housekeeping staff, separating ‘noisy’ from ‘quiet’ space and overcoming the issues of the flood plain. The houses are grouped into terraces arranged around a central wetland, created from Finchetts Gutter, providing a distinct wetland character, which acts as both amenity space as well as part of the SUDS strategy. The wetlands and marginal habitats are drawn up into the semi-private courtyards located between the townhouses. A new student hub will be located on the waterside, overlooking the new pond. Situated on the south of the Village site, so as to draw students resident in other parts of the campus to the south and avoid disturbing neighbouring residences, the hub will be a spectacular feature building, providing a café/bar, Facilities Management space and a shop. It could also be extended to provide conference venues, to promote out of season use of the student village.
Student Residences
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Extension + Alteration
Fraser Brown MacKenna have a long history working with organisations that promote skills training and crafts, so we were delighted to be appointed by one of London’s ancient Livery Companies following a competitive interview to create more accommodation for students attending the University of the Arts. The Worshipful Company of Cordwainers (leather workers) is now a registered charity which devotes a significant amount of resources to support those currently training to work with leather - in the fashion industry. Our brief was to extend the existing halls at Cordwainers Court by utilising an adjacent infill site in the south east corner of St Thomas’ Square; a short walk from the University of the Arts campus on Mare Street. The charity uses its assets to subsidise the residences; making rooms significantly more affordable than similar accommodation in London.
Created as a Georgian suburb of Hackney, St. Thomas’ Square has had a colourful history but now forms part of the Mare Street Conservation Area. Our design proposals, which received planning consent in December 2011 from the London Borough of Hackney will provide 15 new, modern and comfortable study bedrooms within a contemporary but sympathetic addition to the square that maximises the use of the infill site. In order to keep rents affordable, the rooms have no individual en-suite facilities but adjoining rooms share a bathroom. There are several twin rooms in the new building, including two ‘penthouse’ apartments, complete with a balcony. The design of the building maximises views across the square and includes generous kitchen areas and communal space for group study.
Student Residences
Student Residences Cordwainers Court, Hackney
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Student residences Conservation Area Extension Historic square Infill site Affordable rents Overlooking a park Close to protected trees £600,000 contract sum
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Hotel, apartments + live/ work units Deals Gateway, Greenwich
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90 room hotel 103 new homes 20 live/work units 590sqm commercial space Opposite conservation area Gateway site Final phase of OneSE8
FraserBrownMacKennaArchitects
Budget Hotel
Our challenge at Deals Gateway was to create a mixed-use building on an important corner site. The development was the final phase of St James’ successful OneSE8 development, just south of the River Thames between Deptford and Greenwich. Our design creates a perimeter block that connects to the adjoining OneSE8 development. This form provides definition to the streetscape at this important intersection, providing a public ‘outer’ face and a private inner courtyard. The perimeter block can be read as three elements. A 90 bedroom hotel marks the corner of Blackheath Road and Deals Gateway, facing the DLR and bus transport hub. The lobby and restaurant generate activity along the streetface.
Either side of the hotel are two wings which make up the other elements of the scheme. The western wing provides 36 units for private sale. The eastern wing provides 20 live/work units along the Blackheath Road frontage, 11 affordable homes and a further 36 apartments for private sale. The hotel is characterised by a screen that wraps around the corner of the building facing the major road intersection. The screen is punctuated by recessed vertical and horizontal bands that intersect with each other and contain windows separated by spandrel panels. The bands echo the dynamism of this primary route and break up the repetition of the windows to the hotel rooms whilst allowing for a rational structural solution and thus the most effective use of the site to be achieved.
Student Residences
The two uppermost storeys are clad in timber effect panels and set above the white render screen, establishing a positive and strong presence on the corner of the site to address the junction. The simple palette of materials, the use of the punctuated screen to create a rhythm and the outward expression of uses within results in a rational aesthetic that is consistent with the visual themes found within the surrounding area. The appearance of the residential wings is characterised by the use of variegated yellow London Stock Brick, reflecting the local built tradition. The courtyard elevations take on a simpler character, reflecting the more relaxed atmosphere within this private space.
The live/work units are clad in render but are separated from the hotel ‘screen’ using a shadow gap. Window openings use the same module proportions as the hotel, to create a consistent timbre - but the openings themselves are larger - with the largest apertures indicating the principal habitable rooms. The building has been constructed to Level 3 of the Code for Sustainable Homes. The development was completed in 2012.
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Student Residences
Budget Hotel Windsor Road, Slough
• Town centre gateway site • 131 room hotel • Adjacent to a conservation area
Our proposals for a residentialled mixed use regeneration of Edinburgh House – a redundant office complex on Windsor Road in Slough, provide two new buildings; one containing 153 new apartments and another containing a new 131 bedroom hotel. Windsor Road is one of the main thoroughfares through Slough Town Centre and the corner site is in a highly visible location. The site bounds St Mary’s churchyard and the boundary wall contains listed monuments. The T shaped plan provides an efficient and rational layout with 23 bedrooms per floor from a central circulation core served by two lifts. The Windsor Road elevation rises to seven storeys.
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The main entrance to the hotel is glazed to provide an active frontage. Servicing areas for the kitchen, maintenance for lifts, plant and offices are located to the rear. Clad in brick and render, the uppermost storeys are expressed in a vertical treatment, reflecting the massing of the adjoining residential block. The project gained planning approval in April 2015.
FraserBrownMacKennaArchitects