The two-tower, 1,205-student bed scheme, which was lodged with Birmingham City Council in October, would be built on the university’s inner city campus.
The 34-storeys building would be located to the north of the 0.69ha site, facing the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal. A lower 15-storey building would face inwards towards Paradise Circus and Mecanoos’ Birmingham library.
The scheme includes 968 en-suite bedrooms, measuring 13m2 each, in clusters of five to eight; as well as 237 studios measuring 16.5m2.
The scheme involves demolishing the existing Cambrian Hall, a 1970s student accommodation block with 247 beds.
University College Birmingham says in planning documents that the scheme would involve moving all student accommodation to the site, set to be known as Cambrian Wharf.
Currently, students live at either Cambrian Hall or The Maltings, roughly 0.7 miles from the university’s campus in the Jewellery Quarter.
The development will create a ‘new campus-style’ expansion of the university while allowing for a 10 per cent growth in student numbers.
Associated Architects says its designs mirror the neighbouring Jewellery Quarter and inner city, with red and orange tones to the north of the scheme and white and grey tones facing the city core.
The Cambrian Wharf site is a stone’s throw from Howells’ under-construction 49-storey Octagon tower.
Other major schemes either being constructed or are in planning in Birmingham include Metropolitan Workshop’s consented 48-storey Birmingham tower at Snow Hill, Associated Architects’ approved 53-storey build-to-rent tower at Curzon Wharf, and Glancy Nicholls Architects’ proposed – and recently redesigned – 47-storey tower for Broad Street.
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