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Community2023

Blackbird Leys Community Hub

New build community hall and nursery in Oxford

New build hall, nursery and community kitchen for a housing association, delivered on a live estate.

New build services
Scaffolding and blockwork on a commercial site

Project facts

Client
Housing association
Location
Blackbird Leys, Oxford
Contract type
Design and build
Contract value
£1.8m
Floor area
1,150 m²
Programme
52 weeks
Completed
October 2023

01 — The brief

A building site in the middle of an estate

A new hall, a 40-place nursery and a community kitchen, built on open amenity land in the centre of a live housing estate with homes on three sides and a primary school on the fourth.

The nearest front door was eleven metres from the hoarding line. Everything about the logistics followed from that rather than from the building.

02 — Delivery

The neighbours set the working hours

Deliveries were routed off the estate road onto a temporary haul road across the site, so no lorry reversed past a house. Piling was replaced with a raft foundation specifically to take vibration out of the job.

We ran a residents’ surgery on the first Tuesday of every month for the whole contract, and posted the next month’s noisy work on the hoarding. Two complaints were logged in fifty-two weeks.

  • Temporary haul road off the estate road
  • Raft foundation instead of piling
  • Monthly residents’ surgery
  • Noisy work posted a month ahead
  • School drop-off times avoided
  • Two complaints in 52 weeks

03 — The outcome

Handed to the people who asked for it

FF Construction completed the £1.8m, 1,150 m² Blackbird Leys Community Hub in October 2023, on programme and with two logged complaints across the whole contract.

The nursery opened with a full roll. Four of the site team were recruited locally through the association’s employment programme.

Gallery

Built eleven metres from a front door

  • Scaffolding and blockwork on a commercial site
    The temporary haul road that kept lorries off the estate road.
  • A brick commercial extension wrapped in scaffolding at dusk
    Raft foundation, chosen to take vibration out of the job.
  • Completed brickwork and glazing on a finished building
    The hall on opening day.

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Building where
people live?

Neighbours are a design constraint, not an afterthought. Tell us who lives nearest and we will plan the logistics around them.

Or call 01865 000 000, Monday to Friday, 7am to 5pm.