Eurobrick – A flexible finish for student accommodation

Universities continue to compete with each other to win new students and one area that is sure to attract is the quality of student accommodation on offer. For some, the days of old fashioned accommodation blocks are gone, with the rise of stylish new hotel and apartment style schemes set to win new students.

Eurobrick Systems have been leading the brick cladding sector for 30 years and have supplied a number of developers for student accommodation. Recently, they have supplied two projects like this in Coventry – Godiva Place and Abbey House at Coventry University.

Godiva Place is Eurobrick’s biggest cladding project to date. The £47.5m scheme by Galliford Try is a 24,500m² project designed to provide student accommodation as part of the university campus in Coventry city centre. The 5-block project varies in height between 4-9 storeys and provides a total of 772 bedrooms, a social hub and sports facility.

This was a fast-build project, with many parts of the building being constructed off-site, so a quick and effective brick finish that is flexible enough to be installed on-site was required. P-Clad is an external wall cladding system that was developed for use as a sheathing on structures where a cavity is required between the insulation and the cladding system.  Approximately 5350m² of Eurobrick’s P-Clad was supplied to the installing contractor Select Facades, along with Michelmersh First Quality Facings brick slips that were specially cut to 25mm thick.

Abbey House is also in Coventry City centre, close to the university campus. At 7 storeys high, it includes 60 luxury studio apartments and 11 cluster flats with 55 bedrooms, making a total of 115 bedrooms throughout the development, which also includes communal areas and a gym.

Approximately 530m² of Eurobrick’s P-Clad system was fitted by Task Contract Services, who installed it to the 2 gable ends of the building. The standard 22mm thick Pastorale brick slips from Eurobrick’s Classic Range were used together with specially cut 32mm thick Pastorale slips to create decorative bands of alternate brick thicknesses providing an attractive relief effect to the brickwork. Eurobrick’s specially formulated light grey Europoint mortar was used as a contrast to the colour of the chosen bricks.

Eurobrick offer a wide range of brick and stone slips and can also source other finishes and specially cut bricks from a number of specialised manufacturer partners in the UK and Europe, including non-standard sizes, glazed bricks and bespoke products and colours.

www.eurobrick.co.uk