The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and British Army have broken ground on the second of two SLA blocks under construction at RMAS, where all officers in the Army are trained to take on the responsibility of leading their soldiers.
The project is being delivered by the DIO under the Army's SLA Programme, which is providing significant investment in modular accommodation across the Army estate. It is also part of a new wave of carbon efficient SLA construction, with major improvements to standards, and an advance in how the DIO delivers buildings to enhance the lived experience of our armed forces.
As the experts on sustainability, the DIO is deploying innovative solutions to benefit the Defence estate. Once completed, the first SLA for Senior Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs - Senior Block) will contain 53 bed-spaces, while the second will house 45 rooms for Other Ranks (Junior Block).
Both SLAs are being built using Modular Methods of Construction (MMC) - designed to achieve the very highest of building energy efficiencies. These include the use of photovoltaic panels; air source heat pumps for heating and hot water, and a SMART building management system, which learns how the building is used and ensures it runs as efficiently as possible, enhancing its green credentials.
The contract for the construction has been awarded to Reds10. The Junior Block is currently entering its onsite foundation and service phase, and will be handed over to its new occupants in Spring 2025.
Neil Hague, Major Programmes and Projects Senior Project Manager, DIO said:
The ground breaking for the Single Living Accommodation at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst means we will now begin the work of building a quality infrastructure that will add to the pace and volume of Defence infrastructure delivery.
In building the bed-spaces for our Senior NCOs and Junior Ranks, we will partner with our suppliers to deliver infrastructure that meets the needs of Defence, now and in the future. We will be providing the expert infrastructure advice to our customers, enabling them to build this into their planning for the most effective and sustainable infrastructure delivery.
Brigadier Pete Quaite OBE, Head of Infrastructure Plans, Army Basing & Infrastructure said:
These new blocks are an excellent example of the benefits being delivered under the Army's Single Living Accommodation Programme, which is enabling us to build at speed; provide a better standard of accommodation for our people, and improve the resilience of our estate.
I continue to be impressed by the quality, comfort and spaciousness of these modular buildings, which have been designed using soldier feedback and include sustainable features that will enable us to drive down utility bills and support our carbon reduction goals.
Paul Ruddick, Chairman, Reds10 said:
The ground breaking at Sandhurst was a great opportunity to officially mark our work on the Single Living Accommodation alongside the Army and DIO. These state-of-the-art buildings draw on the successes of our work together at Imjin Barracks, where the Single Living Accommodation is one of the most advanced buildings in Europe for SMART building control.
This was a real collaborative effort, and we have been able to feed lessons learned, gathered through the construction process there, alongside data from SMART technology, and real lived experiences from armed forces personnel using the building, straight back into our work at Sandhurst.
