Case Study University of Manchester
Student Accommodation Refurbishment The University of Manchester has been created by bringing together The Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST, two of Britain's most distinguished universities, to create a powerful new force in British Higher Education. The University's vision is to create a 21st century university that will become the preferred destination for the best students, teachers, researchers and scholars in the world.
The University of Manchester has the largest number of places in university-owned accommodation in the UK, with more than 9,200 places in halls of residence. In ensuring that the University continues to offer students a high standard of living, it was decided to upgrade the easy chairs found in the University's student accomodation. Due to their familiarity with projects that involve a high level of government compliance, and their experience of delivering to the educational sector, where implementations often take place within the summer holiday period, Desk Centre were approached and asked to provide a turnkey solution with a remit of replacing over 6500 easy chairs to the various accommodation blocks with the campus.
The project also involved the removal and environmental disposal of the old chairs from over 35 buildings over 5 different sites. Working to strict guidelines in conjunction with the latest government remit, Desk Centre developed an economic and environmental solution for the university. All chairs had to manufactured to and comply with the relevant Britsh Safety standards on strength, stability as well as meeting stringent health and safety factors with regards to the fire retardency of the foam and chair fabric.
The result was Desk Centre's largest ever chair order detailing over 6500 chairs to be delivered over a period of 6 weeks. The logistical operation detailed was developed in conjunction with our chair supplier ACF. We structured our approach to minimise the disruption to the university, resulting in a truly outstanding performance which was commended by the University.