St. Mary’s Student Accommodation + Mixed-Use Development

St. Mary’s student accommodation and mixed-use development is located in Southampton within a busy town center environment and falls within an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA). Acoustics and ventilation strategy was, therefore, key design considerations. The development provides accommodation to 467 students with a student services office on the lower ground floor and retail facilities on the lower and upper ground floors. The building is served by a central plant room located on the lower ground floor and connected to the Southampton District Energy Scheme to deliver the required heating and cooling demands of the development.

Elementa Consulting provided full mechanical, electrical, public health, sustainability, energy, and engineering services on this project. A key requirement of the local council was to fully use the local district heating main, which the team created by creating a central distribution center within the development. This not only allows the building to hit high energy efficiency targets but also significantly reduces the plant space requirements for the site.

Fire design was a key consideration of the project with a focus on a single core design for the towers, with single escape stairs to maximize the usable floor space. Elementa Consulting focused on the energy strategy for the scheme to meet and, where economically viable, for the client surpasses the project’s sustainability targets.