Tŷ Pont Haearn

The site was formerly a cold storage facility demolished into the basement of the building and capped as a surface car park, which meant Carillion had to undertake extensive groundworks prior to construction. The project was rendered more complex by its restricted city-centre location on a triangular site, with two sides bound by live railways and very narrow access via Pellett Street.[2]

The building has a piled structure and was constructed using traditional building techniques. UNITE sometimes uses modular construction methods on their projects, but this was unsuitable here due to the tight site constraints. The high-rise building has a repetitive design which meant the team became increasingly efficient at the process as the project progressed.[2]

During construction, subcontractor Baris installed 50,000 m² of Knauf plasterboard and systems throughout. Up to 90% of the available wall space throughout Tŷ Pont Haearn has been fitted with 12.5 mm and 15 mm Soundshield fixed to 70mm 'C’-Studs and high performance Twin Frame Partitions to enhance sound reduction values. 12.5 mm Moistureshield is in place throughout all the wet areas of the building, providing protection in internal areas of high humidity, with Shaftwall used for the stairwells and lift shafts.[3]

On-time delivery of the project was achieved allowing the client to move in the students in time for the new academic year as planned. Handover took place on a Friday night and the students began moving in on Saturday, two days earlier than the scheduled Monday move-in date.[2]