Grimwade Street Student Accommodation, Ipswich

• Client: Providus Student Accommodation Ltd
• Architect: Barefoot and Gilles
• Market Sector: Residential
• Categories: Education
• Services: Structural Engineering

Grimwade Street is the first purpose-built, privately commissioned student accommodation in Ipswich. It was constructed to accommodate the first intake of the brand new University Campus Suffolk. The site is situated adjacent to the campus making it an ideal location for a halls of residence. The site was occupied by a bungalow and was restricted by an existing college building on one side and a listed office building on the other. Surface water flow rates were restricted by Anglian Water which required attenuation and on-site storage to be incorporated within the building footprint.

The building itself is modern and complements the new campus buildings. The frontage to Grimwade Street is parallel to the street, with a recessed ground floor building line and a projecting, 2-storey zinc and glass upper floor containing communal areas. The return elevation is a solid brick facade of a full 3 storeys with a recessed upper storey, cedar boarded to the North flank and fully glazed to the West frontage, under aluminium standing seam roof. The ground conditions dictated a piled foundation with precast concrete beam and block ground floor. The upper floors comprise a precast concrete floor slab construction supported on load-bearing masonry and isolated steelwork with a lightweight timber top floor structure.

Download a PDF project sheet

Other Residential Projects: | view all