Kampus.

Kampus is a new, £250 million neighbourhood in Manchester city centre – a melting pot of buildings and spaces that celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of the city with respect to its history. Once home to Manchester Metropolitan University, the site was transformed into over 500 apartments to rent in across three locations: new buildings, former Victorian canal-side warehouses and an existing brutalist 1960s tower.

The 11-storey tower was extensively refurbished after being stripped back to the original concrete frame and extended by three additional storeys. The former academic buildings, built decades after the tower, were demolished to make way for the newbuild elements, which were tied into the tower building. Two listed, derelict mill buildings were refurbished and transformed to complement the wider development.

The scope of work at Kampus consisted of a variety of different services we offer at Structures Group.

We were commissioned by Mount Anvil Ltd to carry out the preparatory micro-stripping works to remove all lead contaminated paint in the two Grade-II listed buildings known as the ‘Minshull’ and ‘Minto and Turner’ warehouses on the Kampus site. This is a key item of work that is required to be done first before any other works commence due to the stringent health and safety controls that need to be put in place.

For example, work areas were cordoned off and isolated from the rest of the site, operatives carrying out the micro stripping activities required frequent blood monitoring for lead content, a decontamination unit was required on site to ensure our operatives were free of lead contaminated waste all in line with best practice CLAW
regulation 2002 guidance.

Once the micro stripping works were complete, we then proceeded with the structural alterations and brick repair schedules to restore the external/internal fabric of the listed buildings using practices and materials in keeping with the buildings historic elements in order to meet conservation requirements on the project.

We used a combination of lime mortars, reclaimed bricks and new propping systems to successfully carry out the proposed structural alterations that were required throughout the two buildings.