Unite Students Sidney Webb House

SPIE UK was awarded a £6.4m contract with Unite Students, the leading provider of student accommodation in the UK, for the refurbishment of Sidney Webb House, a 454-bedroom student accommodation building at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

With an incredibly short 11-week programme to deliver both the design and fit-out during the students’ summer break, traditional methods to meet the design criteria would simply take too long. Additionally, the site presented challenging space constraints which meant that installing a traditional plant room was not feasible. As a result, SPIE developed a complete single source sustainable solution for fast fit-out that included innovative energy saving and engineering solutions as well as design thinking methodology.

SPIE’s focus on delivering a sustainable solution was also demonstrated by their lean approach to improving the safety and performance and extending the lifecycle of the building’s existing ventilation systems to the students’ rooms and not replacing it – resulting in a 70 percent cost reduction.