One Pool Street, UCL East Campus, London, UK

UCL, London's leading multidisciplinary university, has used NEC to deliver the first building in its new East Campus at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford. The university let the £100 million One Pool Street residential and academic building to Vinci Construction under an NEC3 Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC) Option A (priced contract with activity schedule) in March 2019.
 
Despite the challenges of working through the Covid-19 pandemic and early stages of the Ukraine war, the building was completed on budget and just two months behind the planned completion date in October 2022. Turner & Townsend was the NEC project manager.

Designed by architect Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, the 22,000 m2 mixed-use building has 552 student rooms in two concrete-framed, concrete-panel-clad residential towers of 13 and 17 storeys. A three-storey concrete-framed, masonry-panel-clad podium below provides 4,600 m2 of flexible multi-functional space, including UCL's Urban Room exhibition space, creative studios, workshops, a robotics lab, cinema and cafe. 

Extensive use was made of offsite construction, with the external concrete walls being installed in two-room-wide panels complete with windows and internal linings, and offsite-manufactured shower and toilet pods fitted into all student rooms. Passive design measures included extensive curved concrete overhangs on the facade to limit solar gain and reduce wind drafts, and heating is supplied by the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park energy centre.

The building achieved a BREEAM Excellent sustainable performance rating. It was shortlisted for the Social Infrastructure Project of the Year in the 2024 British Construction Industry Awards.

Overcoming challenges

Turner and Townsend director David Mellon says much of the construction was undertaken during the global Covid-19 pandemic and later stages took place during the Ukraine war. ‘However, neither of these events was a compensation event under ECC Option A.’ 

He says UK Covid-19 measures started during the groundworks in March 2020. ‘The contractor notified NEC early warnings about workforce absences, social distancing measures and unavailability of plant, labour and materials. Through collaborative discussion and resolution at risk reduction meetings, we managed to keep on programme until October 2021.’

Mellon says subsequent slippage with on-site progress compared to the accepted programme led to more scrutiny of the contractor’s monthly programmes being submitted for acceptance. ‘In addition to discussing the contractor’s early warnings at weekly meetings, we were also notifying our own early warnings regarding concerns on progress.’

He says the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 led to further delays due to disruption in delivering the fixtures, furniture and equipment for the student bedrooms and communal kitchens. ‘Two months later in April 2022, the contractor’s mechanical sub-contractor went into administration, causing yet more delay.’ 

Nevertheless, Mellon says that by working in the NEC’s required ‘spirit of mutual trust and co-operation’, the contract was finished on budget and just two months later than the original completion date. ‘A UCL post implementation review was undertaken in 2023 with the contractor, client and professional team to distil lessons learned and to benefit all parties on future projects.’

Protecting client

Turner & Townsend senior project manager Stephen Jefferies says the ECC Option A contract worked well to protect the client commercially from delays as well as from defects experienced in the later stages. ‘The client was able to recoup the delay to completion through option X7 on delay damages.’

He says the contractor employed a robust defect-tracking procedure to mitigate delays and minimise delay damages. ‘The client was protected by NEC’s clearly defined processes for how defects should be rectified, the process for notifications and the method of assessing costs against unresolved defects.’ 

Jefferies says throughout the project, NEC was used as the guidance for managing change and resolving conflicts. ‘The prescriptive processes for change control including timely responses were effectively managed in the Aconex online document control system. This provided clarity to the project, ensuring both the client and contractor were clear in their responsibilities throughout the works.’ 

UCL also successfully used NEC3 ECC Option A to deliver the adjacent £250 million Marshgate building on its East Campus, which opened in September in 2023.

Benefits of using NEC

• NEC3 ECC Option A with Option X7 on delay damages protected the client commercially against delays and disruption experienced on the project. 
• NEC early warning process allowed both parties to notify and mitigate risks promptly, helping to keep the project moving forward despite external challenges.
• NEC’s clearly defined processes for notifying and correcting defects ensured that defects were effectively tracked and remedied.