Behind the scenes look at Waterside Campus student village

People from Northampton, with an interest in the construction industry at the University’s new Waterside Campus development, were treated to a behind the scenes tour of Waterside Campus over the weekend (31 March) as part of the construction industry’s annual Open Doors Week.

The University of Northampton’s Waterside Campus, which will open in 2018, will see the regeneration of a 58 acre brownfield site close to Northampton Town Centre. Touring the construction of the University of Northampton’s student village, visitors had the opportunity to learn about construction best practice, modern methods of construction, and the make-up of the industry as well as find out more about the Waterside Campus development.

The student village accommodation, which will become home to 1,000 students, includes five-storey flats and four-storey townhouses with landscaped courtyards. Located adjacent to the new learning and teaching buildings, the student village also houses community facilities including a small teaching hotel, health centre, multi-faith chaplaincy, bank and convenience store.

Simon Badcock, Project Manager at the University of Northampton, said: “The student village construction is an interesting and important part of the Waterside Campus development. The halls and facilities have been developed with feedback from our students to ensure that they have the best possible experience whilst at the University. It is wonderful to see the interest that the development has generated in the local community and to welcome visitors to see the development first hand and find out more.”

Mark Bradshaw, Programme Coordinator for Construction at Moulton College, who brought along two students currently studying carpentry, said: “We felt very privileged to have an opportunity to attend this amazing site, during our time here learners we able to appreciate state of the art systems and process used in modern construction. Learners were able to appreciate the different methods of construction and the progressions routes available.”

Guy Osborne, Kier construction manager on the project, said: “Open Doors was a great success for our site. We had almost 40 visitors come to find out more about the project and we’ve had some fantastic feedback from them already. It was a great opportunity for us to show the community what is going on behind the scenes and hopefully we’ve inspired a few people to consider a career in construction in the future.”