Premier Modular, one of the UK’s leading offsite specialists, has handed over a new social housing scheme in High Wycombe, built offsite for Buckinghamshire Council. The Bridge Court development provides 58 apartments for short-term housing for vulnerable people in urgent need.
The project in the Desborough area of High Wycombe was delivered by principal contractor Premier Modular with its construction partner Claritas Group.
The one-bedroom apartments were fully fitted out offsite at Premier’s factory in East Yorkshire and arrived on site complete with shower rooms and kitchens pre-installed.
The homes are constructed around a central courtyard which will be a valuable amenity space for residents. A housing management office and laundry are located on the ground floor, with refuse stores and cycle storage in the plaza.
The building has been designed to enhance the local area and to deliver a high standard of environmental performance. The energy-efficient ‘fabric first approach’ to construction has increased the level of insulation, reducing heat loss and air infiltration. There are also roof-mounted solar panels to generate renewable electricity.
With fabrication and fitting out of the apartments taking place in a controlled factory environment, offsite manufacturing achieves a higher and more consistent quality of finish. The approach has also helped to address the site constraints – Bridge Court is built on the site of a former car park and there was a requirement to maximise the building footprint for housing provision.
According to Peter Skinner of Wilberforce Consulting, “As a project manager for Buckinghamshire Council, I worked with Premier through the tender negotiations and oversaw the installation of the apartments on site. Their team was easy to work with at each stage, with a genuinely collaborative and transparent approach. The quality of their offsite building system and the apartments is very good and exactly as needed.”
The three and five-storey scheme has been finished in a palette of colours including terracotta, slate grey and off white to complement the surrounding local area. The apartments are accessed by lifts and staircases built using in-situ construction. There are two accessible apartments, each with a parking space.
