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LIV Belfast Student Living

New era for student 'LIVing'

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Project Overview

The Client LIV Belfast
Project Value £35m+
Expertise Building
Sector Residential
Sector Education
Project Duration 122 weeks
Project Completion August 2021
Location Northern Ireland
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Project Summary

LIV Belfast Student Living, an “ultra-modern”, purpose-built student residential complex, has ushered in a “new era” for student accommodation in Belfast. Covering circa 228,000 square feet of space spread over 14 floors, LIV is home to a vibrant community of 700+ students. It features 717 bedroom units, comprising of an intelligently designed mix of shared apartments and studio rooms, with two of the building’s floors given over to “amazing” social facilities that include a cinema, gym, karaoke area, games room and café. Despite a range of complex challenges including those presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, our team, which was described as “consummate professionals” by the client, Valeo, completed the project two weeks ahead of programme. Reflecting the quality of the contemporary residences, LIV achieved 100% occupancy within weeks of opening.

The detail

Regarded as a key driver towards promoting city centre living in one of the fastest growing areas of Belfast, LIV Belfast is a “next generation” student accommodation building. Fundamentally, our works comprised of concrete frame and flat slab construction on piled foundations over 14 floors (ground – 13th). The piles are 630mm and 450mm diameter. Meanwhile, the façade consists of an SFS inner leaf with brick exterior leaf, and lightweight partitions are utilised to divide all internal spaces. In order to reduce our carbon footprint and the noise, dust and vibration emanating from the site, we switched the stair design from in-situ to precast concrete. Demonstrating our flexibility, we facilitated a significant increase in the number of bed units, which rose from 550 to 717 beds. The exemplary design and the innovative use of internal and external communal space, provides students with a unique level of comfort. The development is the first building in Northern Ireland to be awarded 3-star Fitwel accreditation - the highest rating given by the world’s leading certification system for buildings which optimise projects to support the health of residents and the surrounding community.

Project Gallery

"GRAHAM have been consummate professionals and our thanks go to them for successfully delivering the building two weeks ahead of programme during a global pandemic, Brexit and severe materials shortages. VMEL would have no reservations in recommending GRAHAM, and wish them every success with their future project deliveries."

Mark Hopkins - Valeo Senior Project Manager

"We would like to express our sincere thanks to everyone at GRAHAM for the amazing donation of a defibrillator. It will be kept in our Street Outreach Vehicle and will provide potentially life-saving interventions to people who are homeless."

Jo Daykln-Goodall - Director of Services at The Welcome Organisation