Laing O’Rourke has been awarded a contract by Imperial College London‘s development management partners Voreda to construct a residential tower on behalf of the College.

Once completed, the tower will provide 192 new homes, including 59 earmarked for Imperial key workers at below market rents.

The £76.2 million contract award is the third project on the White City Campus to be awarded to Laing O’Rourke.

The developer is now only a few months away from completing the construction of the 270,000 sq ft Molecular Science Research Hub and 250,000 sq ft Translation and Innovation Hub, also on behalf of Voreda and Imperial.

The 215,000 sq ft tower is the next milestone in the development of Imperial’s White City Campus , the College’s major new campus, co-locating world-class researchers, businesses and higher education partners to create value from ideas on a global scale.

Paul Sheffield, Managing Director of Laing O’Rourke’s Europe Hub said: “We are delighted to be continuing our ongoing relationship with both Imperial College London and Voreda and look forward to delivering a residential building which will create a landmark building for the White City Campus”

Graham Stark, Imperial’s Development Director for the White City Campus said: “This new residential tower is another exciting step for Imperial in White City. It demonstrates our long-term commitment to delivering a vibrant mixed use community.

“The tower is an integral part of our new 25 acre innovation campus and further establishes Imperial’s presence in the area for generations to come. The Campus itself is the largest single development in the College’s history and offers huge potential for the local area.”

The Laing O’Rourke team is due on site in May with completion expected in 2019.

Laing O’Rourke has reached financial close on the Yorkshire Batch of the Government’s Priority Schools Building Programme that will pave the way for construction works.

With a value of £120 million the project involves the building of seven secondary schools in the West and North Yorkshire areas.

The school buildings are designed around double and triple height spaces for communal areas such as the halls and dining areas, giving the students an abundance of natural daylighting.

Each school will also have its own standalone sports centre with integral changing facilities.The project will be financed under the PF2 model, by a consortium of lenders secured through an Aggregator Vehicle.

The first three schools will move into the new buildings in the early part of 2017, a further three schools following in September 2017, with the largest school becoming available in the Spring of 2018.

The DfMA approach will also offer benefits in the delivery of quality and compliance, with factory standards of quality control being applied to major components such as external wall panels.

This will achieve a consistently high standard of installation which has resulted in the FM service charges, being some of the lowest seen in comparison to similar projects.

ISG is set to deliver the British Antarctic Survey‘s £3.4 million Aurora Cambridge Innovation Centre at the organisation’s headquarters in Cambridge.

ISG will create a 150-seat lecture theatre, two 40-seat seminar rooms and four meeting rooms on the first floor of the glass-fronted extension, with a new library and reception area at ground floor level.

The centre will also offer a 32-desk, open plan collaboration area, providing work and study space for those with an interest in the organisation’s environmental research.

The company will upgrade the building’s mechanical and electrical services infrastructure, as well as existing welfare amenities and improve circulation areas, including the construction of a new staircase.

Liam Duffy, ISG’s regional director – East, said: “Climate change and environmental challenges are amongst the most urgent issues facing the scientific community, and the work we are carrying out for NERC at the BAS headquarters in Cambridge will make a significant contribution to research and collaboration.

“The scheme has been designed to offer flexible and multi-functional spaces that foster close working and knowledge sharing and we are delighted to add this win to our growing portfolio of leading-edge scientific and research projects across the UK.”

Kier is set to start a unique £1 billion housing delivery scheme that will help the public sector build 10,000 new homes across the UK.

The New Communities Partnership will provide local authorities and housing associations with an innovative delivery model for building new homes on their own land, giving them the option to choose between sale and/or rental developments, and offers significant scope for affordable development.

It will also provide public sector clients with potential scope to derive a revenue income from their land, whilst developing in a socially responsible way that will offer local apprenticeships, wider employment and sustainable, economic benefits for communities.

The collective expertise of the partners spans the lifecycle of home building, offering an end-to-end development solution that includes procurement, funding, site assembly, construction, sales, management and maintenance, tailored to be as comprehensive or as focussed as each public sector client needs.

With traditional developments only having delivered an average of 11% of affordable housing over the past 3 years , the partnership will provide a differentiated model that will increase significantly the amount of affordable homes built, with scope for up to 50% of each site to offer affordable development opportunities.

Haydn Mursell, chief executive of Kier, said: “We believe this Partnership creates an excellent and capital efficient opportunity for the private and public sectors to work together to help address the UK’s housing shortage.

“Kier Living’s contribution to the Partnership will be its extensive experience of building and maintaining private and mixed-tenure residential developments across the country.

“We believe that the private sector has a significant role to play if we are to meet the government’s house building targets.”