Fallowfield Student Village has reached Financial Close, moving the £530m redevelopment of the University of Manchester’s campus into construction.

Reaching Financial Close has moved the £530m redevelopment of the University of Manchester’s Fallowfield campus into construction. The scheme is set to become the world’s largest single-phase Passivhaus-certified purpose-built student accommodation scheme, and CAD21 is part of the engineering team behind it.

3,300 student beds sit across 29 residential blocks, with four neighbourhood hubs and a central hub for the shared side of student life. The blocks are mid-rise, up to 14 storeys.

What makes it demanding is the construction method. Fallowfield is the UK’s largest precast, MMC-led development, and that method means services can’t be chased in once the panels are up. Every conduit route has to be cast into the concrete and agreed with the precast manufacturer before a panel is made, which brings the design right to the front of the programme. Seven of the blocks are Higher Risk Buildings, taken through the Building Safety Regulator’s Gateway 2 process.

The scheme targets operational energy around 50% below conventional new-build student accommodation, alongside net zero carbon in operation.

We’ll share the full picture once the buildings are up and performing.

 

Image credits to: Sheppard Robson and Unbuilt Studios

Twelve new apprenticeships across Tyneside, Teesside, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham, in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and BIM.

 

Hiring experienced engineers is getting harder as the skills shortage across construction compounds year after year, and firms across the sector are continually competing for the same small pool of senior people. At CAD21 we’ve taken a different route, training engineers from the start and backing them the whole way.

This approach is nothing new for us as around twenty senior people in the business today started with us as apprentices, and several of our directors and associate directors came up through the ranks the same way. One of our Associates, Daniel from the Tyneside office, joined as an apprentice at sixteen and now leads 2 teams of electrical engineers. It shapes how we think about new starters: bring people on in a way that strengthens their skill set, teach them with the support they need, and get them involved in real work early.

This year’s recruitment drive brings in twelve apprentices across three disciplines: Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and BIM, the modelling and coordination work that runs on Revit. The roles sit across our regional offices, with placements in Tyneside, Teesside, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham. From day ONE, apprentices join a live delivery team, working on real buildings where their decisions shape how the spaces perform.

The arrangement for hiring this way is straightforward. Apprentices take ownership of their own learning, and we build the support around it: experienced engineers to work alongside, an organised and calm way of working, and the room to grow into it. We believe that qualifications matter less than attitude and curiosity, so whether someone comes from school, college, or a different field altogether, if you’re curious and want to see the impact of your thinking in the real world, you’ll fit right in.

“You don’t need the exact qualification. I went to college to do architecture, and they train you and support you. I thought it would be strict and formal, but it’s relaxed and everyone’s approachable.”

Lorie, Apprentice, Tyneside office

For a young person weighing up their options, an apprenticeship in Building Performance Engineering is a route into work that will shape the rest of your career and also how other people live, learn, recover and work in the buildings around them.

To find out more about life at CAD21, get in touch at info@cad21.co.uk.