Manchester Life, Sawmill Court, Manchester
Overview
The Sawmill Court development involved the demolition of all existing industrial buildings on the site which is located within the Ancoats Conservation Area.
The new building is an eight storey, concrete framed, mixed use development with retail units to the ground floor, car parking to the 1st floor and 158 apartments on the upper floors.
To the ground floor, 8 commercial units have been created providing a total floor space of 1,253 sq m. The car parking facilities offer 69 car parking spaces including 4 disabled spaces at first floor and up to 128 cycle parking spaces.
This exciting development wraps around a landscaped pedestrianised courtyard area at ground floor level.
2,453 Work opportunity weeks created 
98.8% Waste recycled 
592 Apprentice weeks created
41/50 Considerate Constructors score 
80.2% Local workforce
Key Challenges
The main challenges on this development involve the city centre location of the site. We were also working adjacent to other contractors, making planning and communication of the upmost importance.
The site is of historic interest with pre-construction archaeological surveys and ongoing monitoring throughout the build.
There have also been complex disconnections and diversions of existing services requiring close liaison with the statutory authorities.
A further challenge consisted of stopping up of existing highways.
Added Value
A scheme of this scale, complexity and design required creative thinking from the whole team. During detailed design development we improved the specification to provide more robust solutions to benefit Manchester Life throughout the lifetime of the rental apartments. These included changing the roof to a Bauder system which has tougher properties for withstanding completion of services on the roof and ongoing maintenance of services. The bedroom vanity unit design was changed from a plasterboard finish to a laminate to provide better durability. These have been included on our approved products listing to be utilised on future projects.
Our team investigated opportunities for value engineering and cost savings and we worked with the other contractors and their design teams. Following a series of workshops, the teams developed standard design solutions for kitchens, windows, doors, internal finishes and floor covering.
These were adopted by all contractors leading to efficiencies in design and standardisation of installation. A benefit for Manchester Life is that the standard solutions are consistent from building to building, leading to more efficient facilities management through consistent maintenance requirements, servicing and cleaning methods.