Preston Barracks, Lewes Road, Brighton BN2 4GL
The Big Build
Introduction:
The regeneration of Preston Barracks is set to be one of Brighton’s biggest regeneration projects. The reconstruction project is a public private partnership between the Brighton and Hove city Council and Landsec.
Landsec is one of the UKs largest commercial property companies and is part of the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 (FTSE100). The FTSE100 consists of the biggest 100 qualifying UK companies based on their market value.
The construction is set to take place over 5 acres including the student accommodation, U+I suite, multi storey car park and an accommodation building. This site will also include a primary care centre to support the increased level of residents. The two GPs will initially be expected to have a flow of 11,000 patients and could possibly reach 16,000 when the whole area is occupied. Part of the plan includes the Preston Barracks scheme which is the former site of the Army barracks. This will include 369 homes as well as shops and offices too. Preston barracks were formally used as military installation, and where originally built as a response to the threat from the French revolution and were completed in 1793. They were originally designed to house cavalry and artillery soldiers with included space for up to 1000 horses. In more recent history the north buildings were used as a territorial army centre up until the early 2000’s. (Preston Barracks, 2022)
Contract Deal:
The Preston Barracks deal is a contract between The University of Brighton and Cathedral Group (Holdings) Ltd with Brighton and Hove City Council for the purchase of and £150m redevelopment of the Preston Barracks site. This follows the government’s announcement of a plant to give up to £7.7m into the Barracks development as part of an overall £17.4m investment into the University of Brighton. The contract includes that the council will sell the freehold of Preston Barracks site to the university, this freehold will include a lease agreed for Cathedral to develop the Barracks site which is a part of the wider plan to covering the three sites which are the Barracks, the land owned by the University, the Watts building carpark, Mithras house carpark and the land on the opposite side of the road. (Preston Barracks deal signed, 2022)
Project Vision:
The overall purpose of this regeneration is to create 1500 new jobs and to build 369 new affordable dwellings, also 534 student bedrooms are planned to be created in managed halls of residence for the University of Brighton.
This project is set to cost 200million GDV and is part of a scheme to establish a new corridor for academic and economic resources. The Gross Development value is calculated by assessing the cost of the development compared to its properties to create an overall total profit.
The Big Build:
The planning permission for the Preston Barracks reconstruction was obtained in December 2017. The plan is to reconstruct parts of the Preston Barracks and the University of Brighton campus. In summer 2020 the first Preston Barrack building opened. It is called the “Plus X Innovation Hub” and is 50,000sq foot and is set to be used as a leading office space, its design is set up to insure sustainability for air quality, humidity and temperature control.
This plan also accounts for the necessity to re-grade the embankment behind one of the new blocks the ensure the stability of the adjacent railway lines making sure that the Networks Rail assets were not damaged whilst the area goes under construction. The ground works were slotted logically into the construction sequence as large machines will have restricted access once the building is complete. (Preston Barracks Construction, 2022)
Another part of the big build is to create a new pedestrian footbridge to create an easy and safe passage between both properties across Lewes Road. The agreement to construct this bridge was signed between Beaver Bridges and the University of Brighton at a cost of £3.5m. The Shropshire-based design will include a lift aid to help accessibility, it will also improve the connectivity of walking routes throughout the University’s campus and will allow space to add CCTV to cover the road and surrounding areas. The project was due to last 52 weeks and opened in 2022. The bridge is almost 30 metres long and 6 metres high and weighing at 200 tonnes. The bridge was constructed using two giant steel beams which were winched into place over Lewes road and connected to 6 interlinked panels to form the bridge deck. (New landmark for Brighton cityscape, 2022)
Project Stake Holders:
The development partners are Brighton and Hove City Council, The University of Brighton and Landsec. The architects for this project are Studio Egret West, TP Bennett, Hassel and Stride Treglown. (Preston Barracks, 2022)
Construction Information
The Preston Barracks Site was designed to be being built using a concrete frame
A concrete frame is constructed by creating a network of columns which are connected by beams to form the base structure of the building. This base structure is usually constructed on top of a concrete foundation, which gives support to the buildings roof, floor, walls and cladding.
The beams are stood horizontal and are load-baring parts of the frame, these beams are classified as either a main beam which connect floor and secondary loads to the column. Or they can be secondary beams which transmit the floor loads to the main beams.
Columns are vertical parts of the frame and are the frames main load-bearing part as they transmit the beam loads into the foundation.
Concrete has a low tensile strength and generally needs to be reinforced, so reinforced steel is used to hold the concrete in tension and to harden it. To make sure the reinforced steel is properly bonded to the concrete it is patterned to increase the surface area. (Concrete frame, 2022)
The construction of The Lewes Road bridge was created by Beaver bridges. Beaver bridges create exceptional bridging solutions and services, Providing quality, safety, productivity and cost savings. Beaver bridge signed the £3.5m deal with Brighton University in 2021. (Beaver Bridges, 2022)
Waste Plan:
The East Sussex and Brighton & Hove Waste local plan provide a local planning policy which ensures that there will be a policy set out to minimise, recycle and re-use any waste that may be created in the construction/demolition. Another policy in the Waste Local Plan is that as the development employs, attracts or accommodates a large amount of people there should be and adequate amount of recycling and other waste facilities. (Preston Barracks SPG, 2022)
Environmental Impacts:
This site plan has a lot of opportunity for environmental green spaces. The accommodation buildings will have rooftops with plants to make sure the space is not wasted. These green spaces will also include an introduction of over 300 native species of tree to the area. (About the Big Build, 2022)
Challenges:
One of the challenges that have occurred during this building process is that the workers found undocumented ground anomalies on the site, this includes two 2.1 in diameter, 20m deep brick wells which were found to be directly underneath two of the building stability cores. These 2 wells were used to extract water from the Lewis chalk aquafer. The resolution for this problem was to use devised transfer pile caps that span the wells but still maintain access. The positioning was calculated to adding any extra weight to the adjacent areas to the brick walls. (Wood, 2022) Pile caps are necessary when the bearing capacity of soil beneath a structure is insufficient for a spread footing. (riyaz, 2022)
References:
Brighton.ac.uk. 2022. About the Big Build. [online] Available at: <https://www.brighton.ac.uk/bigbuild/about/index.aspx> [Accessed 14 May 2022].
Brighton.ac.uk. 2022. Preston Barracks deal signed. [online] Available at: <https://www.brighton.ac.uk/about-us/news-and-events/news/2014/07-16_preston-barracks-deal-signed.aspx> [Accessed 13 May 2022]
Brighton.ac.uk. 2022. New landmark for Brighton cityscape as Lewes Road footbridge is lifted in. [online] Available at: <https://www.brighton.ac.uk/news/2022/new-landmark-for-brighton-cityscape-as-lewes-road-footbridge-is-lifted-in> [Accessed 14 May 2022].
Brighton-hove.gov.uk. 2022. Preston Barracks SPG. [online] Available at: <https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2020-08/14SPGBH_Preston_Barracks.pdf> [Accessed 14 May 2022].
Designingbuildings.co.uk. 2022. Concrete frame. [online] Available at: <https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Concrete_frame#:~:text=A%20concrete%20frame%20is%20a,walls%2C%20cladding%20and%20so%20on.> [Accessed 14 May 2022].
Military Wiki. 2022. Preston Barracks. [online] Available at: <https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Preston_Barracks> [Accessed 14 May 2022].
Prestonbarracksconstruction.com. 2022. Preston Barracks Construction. [online] Available at: <https://www.prestonbarracksconstruction.com/newsletter> [Accessed 14 May 2022].
Prestonbarracksconstruction.com. 2022. Preston Barracks Construction. [online] Available at: <https://www.prestonbarracksconstruction.com/scheme-overview> [Accessed 14 May 2022].
Riyaz, a., 2022. Pile cap. [online] CforCivil. Available at: <https://www.cforcivil.com/pile-cap/> [Accessed 14 May 2022].
Shropshire Star. 2022. Beaver Bridges signs £3.5m deal with university. [online] Available at: <https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/business/2021/08/10/beaver-bridges-signs-35m-deal-with-university/> [Accessed 14 May 2022].
Uandiplc.com. 2022. Preston Barracks. [online] Available at: <https://www.uandiplc.com/our-places/preston-barracks/> [Accessed 13 May 2022].
Wood, W., 2022. Whitby Wood • Progress at Preston Barracks site in Brighton. [online] Whitby Wood. Available at: <http://www.whitbywood.com/progress-at-preston-barracks-site-in-brighton/> [Accessed 14 May 2022].