We delivered this high-quality student community on one of London’s key strategic routes, on a 700m² site in just nine months.
One of our many collaborations with long-term partner Greystar, Chapter Highbury II is a 13-storey student housing scheme consisting of 257 rooms in a mix of cluster and studio apartments.
Also included are high-quality communal facilities such as a gym, study areas, cinema room and laundry room.
This scheme shows the inherent adaptability of the Vision Volumetric system. The planning authority had already granted permission for a development on the site when Tide and architect HTA Design came on board. We had to retain the building’s volume and position of windows, while redesigning the internal layout.
The floor plans were rationalised to provide an additional four units per floor as well as an increase of 11.5% in the size of all units. The external materials were also changed, with non-combustible handset brick on the lower building and vertically stacked corium tiles on the taller building.
In the heart of the busy Holloway Road, next to the Underground station, with Tube lines running below and a TfL Red Route alongside, the awkward 700m2 site was unviable for traditional construction and had lain vacant for many years.
It was, however, ideally suited to the reduced transport needs of volumetric delivery – particularly as it was just 0.3 miles from Islington’s Waste and Recycling Centre. The construction programme took just nine months, and the Tube line remained operational throughout.
The programme shows the value of volumetric’s concurrent workstreams. Work started on site in December 2017. The project was handed over in August 2018, and students moved in the following month.
By building using the volumetric system, the development programme can be drastically reduced. Although volumetric units account for most of the total building area, they can be installed much more efficiently as per the diagram below:
