OFFSITE CONSTRUCTION AWARDS 2019
BEST USE OF CONCRETE TECHNOLOGY
BEST USE OF CONCRETE TECHNOLOGY
WINNER
DANDARA GROUP: DANDARA BUILD-TO-RENT
In 2014, Dandara began investigating the most efficient way to deliver over 2,000 Build-to-Rent (B2R) apartments across three sites in the UK, quickly establishing that offsite construction provided the perfect solution.
Precast concrete is the main method of construction for all of Dandara’s B2R projects, with solid precast construction extending to all floors, balconies, external walls and party walls. There are also over 3,100 factory-manufactured bathroom pods which have been specifically designed for Dandara Living to suit the B2R market. Each precast component has been produced in a controlled factory
24
environment and then stored offsite. Each component is then individually checked prior to arriving onsite. In total, there are over 15,000 precast components across projects in Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester. As a company which operates throughout the UK, they understood very early on in the development of its B2R product that there was a significant onsite skills shortage within this sector, which would only
WWW.OFFSITEMAGAZINE.CO.UK | MARCH/APRIL 2019
CATEGORY SPONSOR
be compounded as more projects came on line. They therefore acknowledged that the technologies and methodologies used in offsite production would be the most efficient and effective way in which to deliver its B2R product to the UK market. During the research and discovery phase of the project, they visited all precast manufacturers currently operating in the UK to develop knowledge of their products and establish how they could work with them to refine the construction process to meet its requirements. At the Planning Submission stage, Dandara were proposing some of the tallest precast concrete buildings to have been constructed in the UK. Three years of pre-planning facilitated early involvement of specialist subcontractors and suppliers. Although its precast concrete structures have a longer design and offsite lead-in, their uniformity and consistency gave greater programme certainty and a shorter onsite programme compared with traditional forms of construction. Overall design, procurement and build priorities were ease of installation, longevity, limiting defects, low service and low replacement costs – all of which have been achieved. The use of concrete enabled them to design, specify and deliver 2,063 residential apartments specifically for the B2R market 30% more efficiently than would have been possible utilising traditional onsite construction methods. The uniform, precast modular apartment types were manufactured offsite and then assembled on onsite floor-by-floor, simplifying vertical services routes and loads from party walls and creating a highly efficient, more sustainable form of construction for large-scale residential projects. For more information visit: www.dandara.com