The Project
As well as providing high quality student homes, urbanest City has created office accommodation, incubator office space for start-up businesses, café and new public space and pedestrian route. It involved the redevelopment of a historically important site and will give the public access to a carefully preserved section of London’s original Roman wall.
The Furniture Solution
In a £2.3m contract, Deanestor has manufactured furniture, supplied fittings and fitted out 629 bedrooms and more than 200 kitchens, which were installed in four phases. This was Deanestor’s fourth project for the developer urbanest.
This project follows Deanestor’s successful delivery of three earlier fit-out contracts for urbanest student living developments, which include schemes at Vauxhall and Westminster Bridge in London.
Bedroom Specification
The bedroom furniture has a dark woodgrain finish and includes single, three-quarter and king-size beds with storage drawers below and open bedhead shelving above; study desks, and single or double wardrobes. Tall storage units for some rooms and the desk drawer units have contrasting white vinyl fronts.
Mirrors, noticeboards, mattresses and bedframes were supplied as part of this contract.
Studio and Cluster Kitchens
Deanestor manufactured kitchens for both studio rooms and the larger cluster kitchens.
These have black quartz worktops, a grey vinyl finish for base and tall units, and white for the wall cupboards. Splashbacks are brushed aluminium laminate and electric hobs are two or four zone. Appliances are integrated and include wall-mounted microwave, electric fan oven, and either fridge freezer or under-counter fridge.
Meeting the Furniture Requirements for Accessible Rooms
Deanestor also manufactured furniture for a number of accessible rooms, which were designed in line with DDA requirements to allow easy wheelchair access.
These kitchens have reduced height worktops with knee space underneath and side-opening ovens, and there are movable three-quarter beds in the accessible bedrooms.
The Customer Perspective
Angus Kearin, Head of Development, urbanest:
“We pride ourselves on delivering the highest quality accommodation for students. We put our residents’ needs at the forefront of any design decision and each room is designed to maximise space and light, whilst delivering the best in modern living and fresh design concepts. Deanestor helped us to deliver that vision, providing high quality design-led furniture solutions for the bedrooms and kitchens. Our schemes are fast-track projects which need an open and collaborative approach and meticulous logistical planning at the fit out stage.”
“The furniture has to be robust to withstand the rigours of student living as well as provide a high standard of aesthetics. Deanestor has been a valued supply chain partner for multiple urbanest schemes and we look forward to working with their team on this next major project.”
Awards
City Building of the Year 2022 - Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects Annual Awards
Images courtesy of urbanest