Project Details

Customer: Royal Agricultural University

Value: £2.7 million

Duration: 48 weeks   

Completion Date: July 2018

Contract Type: JCT Design & Build 2011

Procurement Type: Competitive tender – single stage

GIFA: 1,200 m²

Achievements

• Shortlisted for ‘Projects up to 1,500m²’ in the 2019 British Council for Offices (BCO) Awards and ‘Project of the Year' in the 2019 South West Built Environment Awards

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  Average CCS score 38

   

  Project Summary

  Customer Brief:

  Midas delivered this state of the art hub for agricultural technology businesses at the Royal Agricultural University campus near Cirencester. Completed on a design and build contract, this two-storey office and research facility provides a collaborative, flexible and affordable working space for start-ups and small businesses. This stylish hub features brise soleil, a double height entrance atrium and a mix of timber, fibre cement and Cotswold stone cladding.

   

  The Alliston Centre houses Farm491 and the Cirencester Growth Hub, providing a modern and professional working space for like-minded regional agritech entrepreneurs. The centre offers bright, cutting-edge open plan and cellular office space, plus shared meeting rooms and Nook Pods – networking spaces with whiteboards and power and data points. The centre also benefits from fully equipped kitchen and shower facilities, with landscaped exterior seating, car parking and secure bicycle storage.

   

   

  Challenges:

• Constructing the project on a live university campus.

• As preferred contractor, the customer asked Midas to submit a costed value engineering list along with associated potential risks.

• Meeting the unique design requirements of multiple stakeholders.

   

  Outcomes:

• To safely manage construction works close to operational university buildings, Midas segregated  works with fencing, hoarding and secure gates. The team kept in regular contact with the university estates and facilities teams, holding weekly client meetings at the start of the project, increasing these to daily meetings in the latter stages of the build. Midas provided advance notice of potentially disruptive works and mutually agreed a delivery programme that avoided the campus’ busiest periods.

• Midas won this project on a single stage tender and took on the project at RIBA Stages 4 and 5; collaborating with our design team, the customer and stakeholders to achieve a project that met all requirements. Midas completed a collaborative best value review, analysing the design proposals and potential amendments before proposing £150k of saving opportunities. Changes included: revising the elevations to reduce the amount of stonework, saving £25.5k; an off-the-shelf cycle store in an amended location, removing the need for a retaining wall and saving £4k; changing the roof design and rationalising the brise soleil at a saving of £53k; amending the entrance design at a saving of £14.5k; installing alternative light fittings at a saving of £6k; and retaining excavated materials on site at a saving of £10.5k.