The 491-bedroom student accommodation scheme has been delivered using modular construction, with the 430 modules built in a dedicated factory in north Africa and transported to the UK.
Bouygues, a French company, set up a factory in Morocco specifically for this project to align itself with the UK government’s construction roadmap, it said. UK government construction policy is certainly to promote modular and offsite construction, but it said nothing about outsourcing to Africa. Rather, it was hoping to build a domestic industry to help shore up the UK economy.
Bouygues’s new Morocco factory supplied modular units for the £59m student accommodation element of The Riverside, a mixed-use development in Canterbury. Three Bouygues companies are part of the project: Linkcity is the development partner of Canterbury City Council, Bouygues UK is the contractor and Uliving - Linkcity’s student accommodation brand.
Rob Bradley, chief executive of Bouygues UK, said: ”As our first self-delivered modular project, completing the student accommodation at Canterbury Riverside is a really exciting milestone for us. The completed project is of the highest standard and showcases our ability to design, build and operate student accommodation.
“Modern methods of construction (MMC) is a crucial part of the future for construction, and we have learned a tremendous amount from this scheme, which stands us in great stead for future modular projects. Its successful delivery is a result of great collaboration, between Bouygues UK, Linkcity, Uliving, Canterbury City Council and our colleagues in Morocco, where we built a dedicated factory to manufacture the modules. We are looking forward to utilising these skills much more going forward.”
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