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Terrapin Education

Reading University

70-Day University Challenge

Seventy days from start on-site to finished – that was the challenge Terrapin successfully tackled with a new building to expand the nursery facilities for children of students and staff at Reading University. The new Little Learners Day Nursery on the Whiteknights campus was manufactured in Terrapin’s Milton Keynes factory and assembled on site during the summer break to create the 678m² single storey building, ready for the next academic year.

The Terrapin building replaces facilities used by the Reading University Students’ Union’s day nursery since 1999, and enables their Little Learners to increase from 40 to 94 places. It provides a safe and secure environment for children aged from three months to five years, and offers the latest resources for child development. The University’s architects, the AED Practice, briefed Terrapin to match the adjacent Carrington Building, with a flat roof, pale render and grey powder-coated windows and doors. Terrapin also accommodated the architects’ specific brief which included items such as a waterproof membrane roof blanket, cladding to match adjacent buildings, an integrated courtyard canopy and sun pipes.

The resulting building has two wings, linked by an entrance corridor. Terrapin also planted broad leafed trees in the campus grounds to offset CO2 emitted by the lorries that delivered the building in flat pack form on the 150-mile round trip between Milton Keynes and Reading. Terrapin Contracts Director Warren Eyres said the summer construction schedule was tight, with work on the site starting only after examinations were over, and a completion deadline before the upcoming academic year. “The result is further proof that our building systems have significant advantages over traditional methods of construction, especially speed and minimal disruption to neighbouring activity,” he says.

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