Case Studies
Hotel La Tour, Milton Keynes
Project: Hotel La Tour, Milton Keynes
Sector: Hotels
Main Contractor: Winvic
Architect: PHP Architects
Pod Type: Floorless steel-framed hotel shower pods
Number of pods: 238
Contract value: £1.2m
The Project
This 4* plus hotel is being developed for the independent British hoteliers, Hotel La Tour in Milton Keynes.
Due for completion in 2022, it will have state-of-the-art conference facilities, and a 14th floor sky top bar, restaurant and roof terrace with panoramic views.
The steel and concrete structure for the hotel has a split tower form with a striking stainless steel, mirror finish to the façade. A 30m diameter stainless steel circle to the east elevation will be illuminated with bespoke lighting at night to provide a gateway sign to the city centre.
The Bathroom Pod Solution
Offsite Solutions was awarded the £1.2m contract by Winvic to supply 238 bathroom pods for this new corporate hotel.
All the bathroom pods are floorless to minimise floor build-up.
Each steel-framed pod has a feature wall tiled from a colour palette of different shades of grey according to the hotel room type. Showers have larger trays with a defined square wet area, a circle overhead rain shower, handheld wand shower, and full-height glass shower screen.
Other features of the contemporary shower rooms include a square wall mirror with halo back lighting, and a round vessel-style countertop basin on a floating vanity shelf with an integrated black towel rail underneath.
The pods were installed using a cantilever deck as each floor of the 50m high hotel tower was constructed.
The Client Team's Perspectives
Mark Stuart, Managing Director, Hotel La Tour:
“We wanted a high degree of consistency for the bathrooms across the hotel in both quality and detailing to ensure they are exactly as specified. This is much easier to achieve with a pod solution.”
“Bathroom pods also gave us the opportunity to review a finished shower room before production started. We visited the Offsite Solutions factory a number of times as part of the collaborative design development process."
"Being able to experience the look and feel of the bathrooms at first hand was extremely valuable. It allowed us to check the finishes, detailing, quality and position of the fittings with our customers in mind – such as the precise height of mirrors, basins and shower controls.”
“This will be a 4* plus business hotel, so we wanted a contemporary feel throughout. It is also really important the design detailing of the bathrooms reflects our typical customer, for example, with more spacious showers.”
Russell Sullivan, Project Manager, Winvic:
“Using a manufacturing approach for the fitting out of the bathrooms allows us to achieve a higher and more consistent standard of quality which can be difficult to realise with multiple trades and operatives working on site."
"During the Covid19 pandemic, it was even more important to reduce the number of people needed on site, particularly when working in such confined spaces as bathrooms. Offsite manufacturing helped us to do this.”
Bathroom Pods for Hotels
This latest hotel project follows Offsite Solutions’ successful completion of bathroom pod projects for Zeal Hotels’ Ibis Plaza in Bridgwater, Somerset and Llanerch Vineyard Hotel near Cardiff.
Steel-framed bathroom pods are well suited to the premium hotel sector allowing developers to create exceptional aesthetics with porcelain tiling, high-quality finishes and fittings, and uncompromising design flexibility with all the benefits of standardisation.
Offsite Solutions offers the UK’s largest range of pods to suit many different building types and applications. Other pod solutions include robust and low maintenance GRP composite shower pods for hotels, student accommodation and build-to-rent schemes. These now have a host of enhanced design options for strong aesthetics whilst allowing developers to achieve their budgetary aspirations and reduce maintenance costs.