West Thames College

To maintain the smooth running of West Thames College in Isleworth during a massive three-year reconstruction project, main contractor Osborne turned to Terrapin for a temporary hire building solution. Terrapin designed and erected 2,000 sq m of bespoke “decant” accommodation for offices, a dining room, student common room, IT suite and gymnasium, that has surpassed both Osborne’s and the college’s expectations.

The £51.4 million scheme involves demolishing a number of existing college buildings, dating from the 1960s, and constructing 15,700 sq m of new accommodation, including teaching blocks, a gymnasium and a new theatre. The project will be phased over three years to minimise disruption to the day-to-day running of the college. Two temporary buildings from Terrapin will provide students and staff with service continuity during the period of the development.

The 540 sq m admin building, faced with cedar cladding, uses Terrapin’s Unitrex panel-based technology and took just eight weeks to complete. The admin centre has a total of 16 rooms, including reception areas, offices, store rooms, phone exchange and an IT suite. The modular building was pre-engineered off-site in Milton Keynes and then delivered in panelised ‘flat pack’ form.

Following the successful completion of the admin block, Terrapin is currently on-site, erecting a second cedar-clad Unitrex building, containing a gymnasium, dining and common rooms and kitchen area. Overall time on-site for the second building will be just 13 weeks. Both buildings have been hired, rather than purchased from Terrapin, and at the end of the hire period the structures will be dismantled and the floors, roofs, wall panels, doors and electrical items will be re-used elsewhere.

“The administration building is beyond our expectations, in terms of robustness of the building, the flexible space provided, and the quality of the building finish. We will be very comfortable in this building until we have our permanent one,” says Glyn Williams, Isleworth Centre Manager, West Thames College.

Terrapin’s Andrew Baker says, “Renting buildings allows customers to protect capital, enabling them to consider the possibility of alternative strategic plans and preserve valuable cash flow. Buildings are individually designed and engineered for each site - they’re not just stacks of cabins. We offer complete turnkey solutions, including the buildings themselves, groundwork, climate control, security and interior design. When customers don’t need the buildings any more, we simply remove them, with a minimum of disruption.”

West Thames is a college of further and higher education. It attracts around 7,000 students each year, offering courses from A levels to apprenticeships and from City and Guilds to NVQs. The college has one of the highest success rates in the London region with an overall success rate of 77%, a retention rate of 88% and an achievement rate of 87%.

West Thames College

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