MMC 5542 48 Feb '16 cc

Exeter campus contract for
Lowfield Timber Frames
MMC Magazine reports on a major new student accommodation complex under construction for the
University of Exeter.
Aconstricted site in the centre of
Exeter has presented offsite
specialist Lowfield Timber Frames
with a challenging first contract in the
booming student accommodation market:
with the need to address fire risk during the
construction phase as well as logistical and
structural demands. .
The H-shaped five storey apartment building
is being developed for Downing Students
Exeter Ltd by locally based Dawmus
Construction, to provide over 200 bed-spaces;
all with en-suite shower rooms.
Lowfield, which already has a long track
record in the care home and other volume
markets, was approached by Dawmus to
manufacture and erect the wall panels and
floor cassettes. Work on the site in Western
Way began last summer and is progressing
well.
Darren Jarman, a Director of Lowfield Timber
Frames, told MMC Magazine: “One of the key
aspects to this project was the building’s
proximity to neighbouring properties; and as a
result of the fire report carried out by our
structural engineer, Milner Associates, we
switched from using OSB to Euroform’s
Versaliner board, which offers category C and
B1 fire resistance as well as the necessary
racking strength.”
Although Lowfield can offer a full range of
factory installed insulation solutions the client
in this case wanted to carry out the process
on site, after the 140 mm thick wall panels
were delivered and lifted directly into position
around the four zones to the floor layout. This
was facilitated by Lowfield’s careful
sequencing of deliveries and provision of
integral lifting strops. Then as the floor
cassettes, measuring up to 2.4 metres wide
and nine metres long were installed,
Lowfield’s erection team were also
responsible for positioning the bathroom pods
and packs of plasterboard to ensure even
weight distribution.
In total just over 500 floor and roof cassettes
have been required for the Exeter project,
with the majority of those intended for the
corridor areas having to be altered in depth to
respect the routing of building services.
James Rae, Lowfield’s project coordinator for
the job explained: “We have decreased depth
“As with other sectors we have
expanded into, our developments
have been led by the requirements
from our clients to ensure we meet
their needs. Be this providing the
fire protection during construction,
utilising floor cassettes to reduce
construction time to the factory
fitting of windows as just a few
examples. As with the residential
care and hotel markets where we
have done so much work, speed is
of the essence across the education
sector as well as maintaining the
quality of the product.”
Darren Jarman, Lowfield Timber Frames
timber joists in the corridor areas to allow
mechanical and electrical services to be
located within the floor zone; and to avoid the
need for any below ceiling boxing. This proved
more challenging in the large open communal
areas.
“Meanwhile there are several areas where
extra design input was required in order to
transfer loads from windows that cantilever
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