Carver Street, Birmingham

New Build

Client: Complex Development projects Ltd

25,000 sq ft new-build apartments comprising 7 1 bed, 18 2 bed and 5 3 bed apartments plus 5 on-site parking bays with electric car charger point. The scheme included 8 No duplex apartments and 9 apartments had their own dedicated terrace or balcony area as outdoor living space. The apartments ranged in size from 440 sq ft to 1,600 sq ft.

A Complicated inner-city site in the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham, very constrained in terms of construction with highway and pavement tight to front and back elevations and buildings tight up to either side. Only a small central courtyard so construction had to be phased to accommodate the construction process. Before Harrabin Construction started on-site, construction had already previously been started as a former hotel scheme, which had failed, and as a result, there were a lot of pile and ring beam foundations and a basement area already constructed,. Contractors for this work had gone into liquidation a few years ago and could not, therefore, be warranted for re-use. Consequently, Harrabin Construction and the design team had to work around this with the new build.

Construction was: Foundation pads and ground beams, ground floor construction was beam and block or RC slab, steel frame with metal deck and concrete intermediate upper floors. External walls were constructed of Kingspan SFS, insulated with external leaf to street elevations of facing bricks and to the courtyard elevation being clad with Permarock render and brick. Pitched roof areas were Marley Eternit Thrutone slates and flat roof areas were single-ply roofing system by Danosa.

The scheme was constructed to look externally as if it were 4 separate buildings of varying architectural styles which reflected the character of the variety of building typologies across the Jewellery Quarter.

The scheme was supported by the Unlocking Stalled Housing Programme offered by the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP with the grant administered by Finance Birmingham as their agent.

Scheme completed and handed over on 30^th April 2021, despite the challenges associated with COVID 19 lockdowns and securing materials and labour to complete the build.