The Cardinal Hume Centre provides support for young people, badly housed families, refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, helping them to obtain employment and to break out of the cycle of homelessness and social exclusion.

The project included a major refurbishment and conversion project including a roof top extension, new lift and improvement works to the existing building to extend the existing hostel for young homeless people. The project also included a ground level extension to create a new family centre including external children's play area and enhanced landscaping.

Addressing Key Challenges

• Access to the site. The location of the site in Central London meant that deliveries, waste removal and general site logistics were significantly more complicated and risky. Our CDMC assisted to help identify methods of construction that utilised small components and low risk techniques to enable the construction work to progress in a relatively restricted environment.
• Works in an occupied site. The existing hostel had to remain in use throughout all stages of the project. Accordingly, it was essential to ensure safety of residents and staff during the construction stage. This involved careful planning of phases and identification of ‘protected’ routes.
• Communication. Due to the extremely varied range of people and users within the building, our CDMC was heavily involved to see that information was made available and distributed to all relevant parties and in an appropriate format.