Terrapin building hire for West Thames College

During West Thames College in Isleworth massive three-year reconstruction project, main contractor Osborne turned to offsite construction specialist Terrapin for a temporary hire building solution.

Terrapin designed and erected 2,000m of bespoke "decant" accommodation for offices, dining room, a student common room, IT suite and gymnasium, that has surpassed both Osborne's and the college's expectations.

The GBP51.4 million scheme involves demolishing a number of existing college buildings, dating from the 1960s, and constructing 15,700m2 of new accommodation, including teaching blocks, a gymnasium, and a new theatre.

The project will be phased over three years to minimise disruption to the day-to-day running of the college.

Two temporary buildings from Terrapin will provide students and staff with service continuity during the period of the development.

The 540m2 admin building, faced on three elevations with cedar cladding, uses Terrapin's Unitrex panel-based technology and took just eight weeks to complete, including a week for the foundations.

The admin centre has a total of 16 rooms, including reception areas, offices, store rooms, phone exchange and an IT suite.

The modular building was pre-engineered offsite in Milton Keynes and then delivered in panelised 'flat pack' form.

Following the successful completion of the admin block, Terrapin is currently on site, erecting a second cedar-clad Unitrex building, 1,400m2 in area, containing a gymnasium, dining and common rooms and kitchen area.

Overall time on site for the second building will be just 13 weeks.

Both buildings have been hired, rather than purchased, from Terrapin - at the end of the hire period the structures will be dismantled and the floors, roofs, wall panels, doors and electrical items will be re-used elsewhere.

"The administration building is beyond our expectations, in terms of robustness of the building, the flexible space provided, and the quality of the building finish".

"We will be very comfortable in this building until we have our permanent one," says Glyn Williams, Isleworth Centre Manager, West Thames College.

Terrapin's Andrew Baker says, "Renting buildings allows customers to protect capital, enabling them to consider the possibility of alternative strategic plans and preserve valuable cash flow".

"Buildings are individually designed and engineered for each site - they're not just stacks of cabins".

"We offer complete turnkey solutions, including the buildings themselves, groundwork, climate control, security and interior design".

"When customers don't need the buildings any more, we simply remove them, with a minimum of disruption." West Thames is a college of further and higher education.

It attracts around 7,000 students each year, offering courses from A levels to apprenticeships and from City and Guilds to NVQs.

The college has one of the highest success rates in the London region with an overall success rate of 77%, a retention rate of 88% and an achievement rate of 87%.

Terrapin is a privately owned company which has been expanding and promoting the potential of modern methods of offsite construction since the 1940s.

It grew with the development of modular classroom buildings throughout the baby boom and is now a leader in factory assembled building frames, panels and volumetric modules for projects such as hotels, prisons, hospitals, schools and apartments.

Terrapin is the first company to be accredited under Buildoffsite's new supplier registration scheme operated by Lloyd's Register.

The scheme standardises all aspects of the offsite process and ensures best practice, offering clients confidence in the assured levels of competence, methodology and safe working of the accredited supplier.

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