New student village for the University of the West of England

14/02/2005

Support services and construction company Carillion has begun work on the new £77m Frenchay Student Village and Sports Hall at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol.

Part of the University’s £200m investment programme, the project is designed by Building Design Partnership (BDP) from the practice’s Bristol office and client project managed by Capita Symonds.

Scheduled for completion in September 2006, the development includes new sports facilities and high quality accommodation for nearly 2,000 students. The scheme comprises groups of self-contained apartment units, each with six en-suite study bedrooms and shared kitchen/lounge areas, arranged in a series of buildings set around leafy courtyards.

Living on campus means students will spend less time travelling from accommodation sites around Bristol to the Frenchay Campus and can take full advantage of the new facilities including a main sports hall, aerobics studio, fitness suite, climbing wall and café. Each study bedroom will also be linked to the University’s computer network and offer fast internet access. BDP’s masterplan achieves a high density of development, making the best use of the land available, without sacrificing the quality of external spaces.

Carillion project director Colin Rooney says: “Carillion has a long history with UWE and built several elements of the original campus in the 1970s and 1980s. This project is one of the first student accommodation schemes to be delivered under the new Building Regulations and will draw on the latest best practice in terms of accessibility, acoustics, security and sustainability. It has a very fast 18-month programme, in order to be ready in time for the 2006 student intake.”