360 Tour: University of Roehampton Digby Stuart Accommodation

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We caught-up with Osborne Site Manager Charlie Howes to explore every angle of the University of Roehampton’s new student accommodation project! In The B1M’s first 360 degree video, we join Charlie for a walk through the £28M construction site in South West London, UK.

Designed by MJP Architects, the new 12,500m² facility will offer bedrooms for nearly 400 students from September 2016.

The ‘Digby Stuart’ accommodation forms part of a wider £80M masterplan for the University that includes further student residences, landscaping and a state-of-the-art library.

Above: University of Roehampton's new Digby Stuart Accommodation, designed by MJP Architects (image courtesy of MJP Architects).

The tour takes in a number of key areas as shown on the plan below:

1. Site Hoarding 
   
2. North Courtyard
   
3. Student Bedroom
   
4. Conference Suite
   
5. Rooftop 

Above: The key points of our 360 tour (plan courtesy of MJP Architects).

In the North Courtyard, Charlie explains how the building’s façade was formed of pre-fabricated panels (a ‘panelised’ system) to ensure quality and deliver a faster construction programme.     

Each panel was manufactured under controlled conditions in Belgium, where even the windows were pre-installed. The panels – ranging in weight from 4T to 14T – were then driven to the UK where tower cranes at Roehampton lifted them into position.

Above: The building's façade was formed of pre-fabricated panels ranging from 4T to 14T in weight. Below: How the North Courtyard will appear once completed (image courtesy of MJP Architects). 

Pre-fabricated techniques extended to the student bedrooms where en-suite bathrooms were delivered as ready-made pods. The new facility provides a range of bedroom formats together with a conference suite on the top floor.

Ending up on the roof the new building, we see the London skyline and the Library under construction with tower cranes lifting in pre-cast concrete panels into place.

“The best thing has been seeing what it has grown into” explains Charlie. “When we started this was the car park, now they’re soon to have a fantastic new building”

"When we started this was the car park, now they’re soon to have a fantastic new building”

Above: This video was filmed by The B1M using GoPro 360 degree camera kit.

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The Digby Stuart Accommodation project is being built by Osborne. Our thanks to Osborne for granting us extensive access to the site and to Site Manager Charlie Howes for taking us on this tour. Images used with kind permission of MJP Architects.

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