State-of-the-art warehousing set in natural landscape

Didcot Quarter is the largest industrial development in South Oxfordshire for over 20 years, with the development of two major speculative industrial units which provide a total of 28,000 sq. m of distribution and logistics space.

Challenge

Regenerating a key site, the state-of-the-art facility aims to provide an important boost to the local economy. Crucially, the developer needed to be sensitive to the surrounding area, which included considering comprehensive landscaping across the site and careful treatment of new transport access to mitigate disturbance which our civil engineers have overseen.

To particularly cater for the local area’s technology market, special emphasis has been placed on creating an environment that promotes the health and wellbeing with five acres of natural landscaping featuring native trees and flowers. While the buildings themselves have been designed to be highly sustainable, aiming to achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating.

Solution

Working hand-in-hand with the architects, Chetwoods, we supported the project through its planning stages and our team was subsequently novated to Winvic to oversee the design through construction period.

Built on the site of a former Ministry of Defence logistics depot with a history of sporadic development and variable soil conditions, our team provided geo-environmental assessment and geotechnical design with a watching brief and verification of earthworks during construction.

Our structural engineers have worked on the two warehouse buildings with 11,000 sq. m and 17,000 sq. m of floor space and 12.5m and 15m clear internal heights. The buildings include offices of high-spec modern design, including dramatic glazed facades, maximising the admission of natural light, and 14m span column free space.

Sustainability and the community

In addition, our civil engineering team oversaw the installation of a new bus stop and cycle path as part of the surrounding infrastructure, which will encourage the facility’s community to adopt sustainable methods of transport.

The buildings at Didcot Quarter will achieve BREEAM ‘Excellent’ with carbon saving features that include PV solar panels and air source heat pumps, while a rainwater harvesting system will also be installed.

Images courtesy of Savills.