Well appointed facilities at Commonwealth Games construction site

TCi furniture WORKS supplied and installed a superior office and welfare furniture setup for the commencement of works at Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Athletes’ Village construction site for Lendlease.

The 116 bay modular building provides locker and canteen accommodation for more than 1500 site operatives and open-plan office space for nearly 300 workers.

Working closely with building supplier, Premier Modular, the layout was carefully space-planned to maximise available space whilst maintaining clear access routes and a comfortable atmosphere.

One of the key challenges was to accommodate the required canteen seating safely and comfortably within the given floorplan. A split seating arrangement was settled on, featuring traditional tables and chairs along with bespoke, oversized, modular canteen units. This has resulted in a total of 580 seats, capable of accommodating up to 1740 workers across 3 sittings.

To maintain gangways for safety, TCi specified bolting down the tables, ensuring that they cannot be moved to become an obstruction.

Space planner, Sam explains: “the initial concept presented to us contained standard-size 4-seater canteen units (1000mm x 1500mm), but we revised this to accommodate a mixture of oversized (1100mm x 1700mm) units and rectangular 4-seater canteen tables, to provide greater comfort for construction workers with flexibility and ease of cleaning.”

Further comfort was added through the addition of ‘pigeonhole’ bag storage placed around the perimeter of the room. This prevents the need to store bags and clothes around the seating areas. These bespoke units were supplied in several different height configurations to accommodate numerous televisions mounted on the walls.

A total of 1504 wire mesh locker compartments were incorporated via 2 tier, double-nested units, supplied with sequenced, printed number labels and a traditional steel-framed, wooden slat changing bench system with coat hangers.

On the first floor is an open-plan main office with central meeting rooms and collaborative breakout areas.

During the design process, workstations and storage occupying the central areas between the outer desking and meeting rooms were relocated to prevent obstruction to walkways, improving the visual space within the office and enhancing the effect of the glass partitioning.

“It was possible to redistribute a lot of storage to dead space around the outer walls of the office and use the positioning of tall cabinets to provide a degree of partitioning between areas,” explains Sam.

Another feature of the setup is the 4:3 arrangement of desks on the 1^st floor, alternating 1200mm and 1600 bench desks to provide banks of 7 workstations. This allows the incorporation of each of the 203 required stations in comfortable groups.

“By communicating thoroughly with Premier Modular and Lendlease, we have been able to provide a solution that makes best use of the space available, with respect to the positioning of floor boxes and number of staff to accommodate”

A central cluster of 6x 6-seat and 3x 14-seat meeting rooms provides conference space for up to 78 persons, with further informal meeting booths and breakout tables to either end for collaborative working, situated between structural columns. The custom-made booths feature power supply points and TV/monitor screens.

“We proposed one-piece tables for the central meeting rooms where possible as this results in fewer legs, making the space more comfortable to sit at.”

The second-floor office comprises a more spacious desk arrangement and another central cluster of meeting rooms, with the addition of a 30-seat boardroom overlooking the viewing deck.

Accommodating 30 persons in a conference arrangement was made possible with the design of a bespoke 8-piece boardroom table, measuring 7.5m x 2.4m and incorporating data and power points throughout.

The office is completed by the addition of 18x 8-compartment personal locker units and a suite of breakout furniture within the kitchenette area.

TCi furniture WORKS provides commercial office and welfare furniture design, delivery and installation to businesses and construction sites throughout the UK. Our specialist team works with you to design and install a high-quality, professional environment, ready for occupation. Contact the team today