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An On the wire story
Contractor Graham has secured final Gateway 2 building control approvals for the University of Manchester’s £530m Fallowfield Campus redevelopment, removing the last regulatory hurdle for all 29 blocks in the 3,300-room student housing scheme.
According to the contractor, the approvals cover seven buildings classified as higher-risk under the Building Safety Act, alongside the remaining 22 lower-rise blocks, allowing the project to move fully into construction.
The milestone is significant because it means the entire campus scheme has now passed scrutiny from the Building Safety Regulator on fire safety, structural and construction information.
Graham said the team had taken an early approach to the new regime, submitting its first application months before planning consent was secured, a sequencing strategy that has helped the project stay ahead of the regulatory process. The scheme is being delivered through a 50-year partnership involving the University of Manchester, Equitix, Graham and Rothesay.
The redevelopment is being presented as one of the UK’s most ambitious student accommodation projects, with the first 1,000 rooms due to open in 2028 and the full development scheduled for completion by 2030.
Graham says the campus is aiming to become the world’s largest single-phase Passivhaus-certified purpose-built student accommodation scheme, with operational energy use expected to be about half that of a conventional new-build student development. That claim places the project at the intersection of housing demand, carbon reduction and the tighter building-safety regime now shaping major residential schemes.
Modern methods of construction are central to that ambition. Techrete is manufacturing about 4,150 precast façade panels for the scheme at factories in Balbriggan in Ireland and in North Lincolnshire. The low-carbon concrete panels combine reconstructed stone and clay brick finishes, with the structural and insulation layers produced together as single sandwich units, a design intended to support both speed of delivery and lower embodied carbon.
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Source: Noah Wire Services
• This On the wire article was created using Noahwire AI and reviewed by CIBSE Journal’s editorial team
