Director
Alumno Group
It’s extremely difficult to find any plot in Brighton, Falmer, or the surrounding parts. In Falmer there’s just the train station, the football club, the two universities, and a few houses in private ownership. One of which is the home of a university chaplain. On week- days, during university holidays, it is completely tranquil. Almost nothing happens at all, with these few houses having the area entirely to themselves, until the weekends when everything changes. Brighton and Hove Albion have become such a major force in the English Premiership that when there are football games, not only Brighton fans, but the travelling support from some of the biggest clubs in Europe all flood into Falmer station, the stadium, and the surrounding car parks. During term times there’s a nice buzz about. When the day’s lectures are either about to start, or just finished, the station platforms are full of commuting students until the next train comes and swallows up another group of them.
So, to find a site on the doorstep of the campus, and right beside the train station, was a bit like gold dust. Alumno was bidding for the plot, but we were unsuccessful, somebody else got it. They developed it and brought it through planning which is quite an undertaking. At the point of sale, the other developer had no interest in building it out, so they were interested in what you call ‘flipping’ it with the planning consent granted for that design. This meant we had to work to that design and make the most of it, by putting our touches on it, with either quite limited or no room for change. This was a new thing for us, requiring some ingenuity, as we usually plan projects from the very outset.
When we bought the plot and the planning consent, there were still two old cottages on there. The old address was Park Wall Farm Cottages. One was a former relatively large residential building, with a small side building, which had been unoccupied for many years and held no architectural or heritage value. They were derelict, with rain coming in, inhabited by pigeons and bats.
The bats gave us quite a hard time as you can only remove them when they are in hibernation. Just in time, we managed to have ecologists on site to
Brighton Falmer
safely take care of the bats before we needed to start in earnest. Then we demolished the derelict buildings and prepared for the installation of the foundations. There was no change to the external design or to the fundamentals of the internal layout – all the rooms, corridors, kitchens, communal areas, plant room and everything were pretty much fixed and agreed by the prior planning.
We have achieved a lot of recognition and awards for what we’ve managed to do with regenerating existing buildings and creating new buildings, or elements of both. We needed to bite the bullet and make ourselves as happy as possible with what had been approved in the planning consent even though, if starting from scratch, we might have done certain things differently. Somehow, we had to try and give this building the Alumno touch. The way to leave the Alumno fingerprint lay in how we filled it because it’s, after all, essentially a shell and it needs some life in there. We designed the interiors to find what combination of study, suite and storage facilities could fit into these spaces.
It was challenging, but our tried and tested concept of how students live – what they want or need or desire – informed what we put into the rooms right up to the colour scheme. This was our only project where we went with bold colours rather than grey, white, and black. We chose a very dark blue for the furniture, which is kind of a timeless colour, and everything followed from there, including the door colours and the strategy for the signage.
We kept the interior design of the whole building in-house. That’s so important in allowing us to constantly evolve and improve things. For example, previously we realised that it would be beneficial to place a socket under a mirror, because many students would use the mirror for styling purposes. We also updated many sockets to include USB charging ports, which have become an absolute standard in student rooms.
Little details like that sometimes make all the difference in projects. We have changed, for instance, the old-fashioned sofas in the communal kitchens. Now it’s specially commissioned bespoke seating by David Tatum which is more comfortable and looks far more modern. David has very successfully provided furniture down the years, and increasingly made furniture, for Alumno projects.
Unlike many of our other projects we inherited a really small communal space within the building. It also had the character of a draughty train station reception lobby because it is immediately next to the reception with no door separation. Worse, it has two more doors on other corners to con-
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necting to facilities, and to the stair core. You have a square room with only one corner which hasn’t got a door. It was challenging to provide a bit of calm and create a room where people really want to stay. That’s when David Campbell made the connection to Ben Kelly. The aim was to generate some kind of intimacy and the way he achieved it was building a room in a room.
We put much effort into the wayfinding, branding, and signage strategy of Falmer in collaboration with Andy from Graphic Thought Facility. They came up with good ideas especially when we wanted external signage given it’s such a poorly lit corner. There was pride in delivering the building into Falmer, so we called it ‘Alumno Falmer’ and that ran through the concept. The big name sign on the building looks exceptional, but it was painful to get it on. It was a nightmare that, at one point, I thought we’d never overcome. It’s a heavy metal sign that might have been easier to put up with a helicopter! We needed specific carriers or crane-like devices to get it up, but these devices were heavy themselves and, as we then found out, the paving was quite delicate for such heavy vehicles. The site couldn’t be accessed due to the fence and the vehicle couldn’t reach over without toppling. The end result is amazing and really improves the look of the building, but people who just look at it don’t know the story behind it.
Generally speaking, the students are very happy with all aspects apart from the issues that maybe could be addressed in the common room. The proximity to transport and the campus could literally not be any better. It is an amazing location, but the dark side to it is the busy motorway with a rela- tively busy railway on the rear side. It’s wedged between two environments that produce a lot of noise: an acoustic nightmare!
The original design didn’t allow for opening of the windows facing the motorway. There’s something strangely claustrophobic about feeling you’re not allowed to open a window. I’m a strong defender of treating students as what they are – young adults and not children. I’m not a fan of telling people they can or can’t open windows. One of the things I insisted is that the airing and ventilation strategy was reviewed and improved.
Towards the motorway the windows have extra sound installation. The students now have the choice to open the window, but they don’t need to be- cause they have a boost button within the rooms. If they press the boost button then the bathroom ventilation, which continually is on, goes onto an elevated running mode, which provides more ventilation by drawing in air through air breaks under the window. So, you still get fresh air in to some degree without opening the window. The students pay money for these rooms, and they should be to the highest quality and standards possible.
Considering the site, we’ve achieved a lot and the nice garden areas at the front and back are two lovely touches. The private garden to the rear, wedged between the platform of Falmer station and our façade, was one of the last things we did. On the plans and the earlier designs there was nothing there, just a lot of shrubs and wilderness. By carefully cutting this back, making it more habitable, and installing a very long bench with retaining wall, it has transformed it considerably. The students have these exterior areas they can use if they want to be outdoors in sunny weather within the student accommodation. If you’ve got a Saturday with a huge number of football fans turning up, the students can still feel very secure in the middle of all that.
When I first saw the fence installed, I was absolutely shocked. You learn so much about it, such as the darker a fence is the less you are seeing it. To be honest, if I could have done it again I would have used almost a black fence, which would have almost melted away. It is quite a high fence for the right reasons – also the door mechanisms, the CCTV, and the electronic logs I think are appropriate for the area. The security and design were important to create somewhere where the international students, quite a lot of whom are female and young, would feel very safe. They’re quite shy and new to things so for themselves, and their parents’, safety is paramount.
Brighton Falmer
Manager
I’m from a hotel background, all of my career, so I spent a lot of time at Thistle Hotels and almost 20 years at Premier Inn in various locations, Gatwick, London, Brighton and along the South coast. I’m originally from Lincolnshire, but I’ve been down south for thirty years so my accent has kind of evolved. I now get called a snob when I go back to Lincolnshire because they think I’ve turned into a southerner.
How I originally got involved with student accommodation is a bit of a long story. Originally, back in November 2019, I took redundancy from Premier Inn and my aim was to have a good long break of two or three months, running through the festive period, then go into work in this sector. This is a sector I’d chosen to go into because it’s not that dissimilar to hotels. Different sector but in principle very much the same – and then Covid closed the world down so things didn’t quite go according to plan straight away. I came to Homes For Students after being approached in June 2021 and then we opened here in September 2021. But I’d decided it was a sector that I’d wanted to go into because a lot of hotel people and friends were doing this sector already, so it seemed like it was a sensible fit really. Very transferable skills really. And I’m very much a people person, so I love working with people and really enjoy the people side of the business. So for me this is totally people focused and hotel management was becoming less people focused. I was finding it more like office management, back of house, reporting and stuff like that so I was were kind of becoming an Excel technician, as opposed to the customer focused side of things.
So I’ve got students to look after now. We’ve got seventy one students in seventy one rooms here. It’s totally focused on the student, their welfare and their feeling of being at home in here with us at the end of the day – there’s a lot of international students who are a long, long way from home and I want them to feel that this is their home, not just their student accommodation and I think we succeed in that generally.
And of course you’ve got a lot of different nationalities as well, throughout the place, and they’re all getting to know each other – Generally, what hap- pens is we’ve got eleven corridors of four, five, or six rooms in them. So they become their own social group within that corridor and then they meet each
Brighton Falmer
other in the same classroom over at the uni. We’ve got two students that have stayed here for the second year again this year – they’re studying Spanish and they’re in the same class today. So they bump into each other and go and do their Spanish and whatever over at the uni as well.
And then last year again there were a couple of students that had become great friends on the first year of their course. One of them, a young guy from Kent, is a bit of a success story really for us because he came to us very timid, very shy. During the first year of the course a lot of it was online because of Covid and then he left in July this year. His Mum came back into the building after they’d loaded the car up and she just came up to me and she said “Ian I want to thank you” and I said “It was a pleasure, he’s a nice guy, it was nice to look after him” and all the rest of it. She said he is a totally different adult in the space of the ten months he’s been here “I don’t know what you’ve done to him but he’s a different person that I’m picking up today than the one I dropped off with you in September last year”, and that’s brilliant. It’s nice that we, as experienced adults, can influence and guide the students as well.
Sometimes people that are from the UK have decided to go to the student ac- commodation anyway because it’s their first chance to live outside the parental house, the family home, and mix. That’s one of the biggest leaps of all to take.
We’re part of that study journey for the year that they’re with us, and we’re part of their journey of leaving home, you know. Parents are often as nervous as the students about them leaving home as well so it’s nice that we can also do a degree of being that point of contact for the parent and the student.
I mean even September this year now, an overseas student – his Mum came over with him – she stayed for a week or so and then she left a few days ago. She just turned round and she said “Mr Ian will you please look after my Ramy” – and it’s just like, yeah, this is here.
It’s really strange because I feel as though every September I acquire 71 young people and some of them are still teenagers, that I need to look after and we do our best to do that for all of them.
As a building I you feel that it’s generally working well and fit for purpose. The accommodation is really really good. I think our standard of student ac- commodation, whether it be in an en-suite room or one of our studios, are up there with the best in the sector. If there’s something that’s not quite working, we just need to listen to what the students want and their feedback and give them what they want as best as we possibly can. For example, we’re looking into bean bags for the that have got more of an easy chair shape for the com-
mon room to make it more comfortable. It can be a small job to adapt a space a bit. As it’s a small accomodation, we’re restricted with space for common areas, though the rooms themselves are a good size
We’ve got the laundry room just the other side of the wall and we’ve got the outside areas. We’ve got a nice outside area that goes along the railway side of the building. There’s a big long seating area out there. It’s shingled over, and there’s a garden, with a variety of plants, so it’s really nice. It’s quite shad- ed because of the trees between us and the railway station, so it’s very pleas- ant. Students can sit out there and have their lunch or sit out there and study and it’s still within range of the wifi. The outdoor garden area is a really good addition because otherwise there would be nothing external that’s part of the accomodation, though of course the big university campus right next to us, has lots of indoor facilities and outdoor space.
There is also the garden area, on the other side of our building. It’s a nice green grassed over area. In the summer we’ve bought some larger gar- den games so if anybody wants to sit outside and do Connect four, or whatever on a larger scale in the garden. We’ve also got a giant Jenga and stuff like that.
As far as amenities are concerned, there’s a good local Co-op over the road, on campus, so that’s just minutes walk away. Then there are the coffee shops, the food halls and a couple of bars
Brighton Falmer
Then of course you’ve got a railway station right exactly here. That could take you round to just about anywhere. You’re in Brighton city centre within 10 minutes and the services are every 15-20 minutes so they’re quite regular. You couldn’t really be any closer to the railway station, as the building as right beside it, but it’s well designed so there’s no disturbance. So that’s really good for them, so they’ve got essentially the campus and just into town if they want to do some town stuff.
We had a student last year, I can’t remember why he did it but we asked him to look at doing a review for us. One of his points of fact was the railway station is literally 200 steps. So that was really good, he’d counted the steps.
There’s a lot of support mechanisms in the uni’s as well. This accommodation has got a good connection with the university, a good relationship with the university. We’ve got a maintained relationship with Sussex university for student welfare and things like that.
A ‘maintained relationship’ to the lay person means we’re in conversation with them, on an as and when basis, mainly around student welfare. So if, for example, they’ve not seen a student attending course for a few days then Student Welfare get in touch with us. So there is a kind of a procedure and obviously if we’ve got students that are potentially experiencing difficulties and whatever, we can give Welfare some feedback. We can also suggest to the student that there’s a good Welfare Unit over there or we can refer them to Student Minds here as well. So there’s kind of two angles to it. But we’ve got a good relationship with everyone over there.
There’s two other main student accommodations on this side of the road as well. We have a really good day to day relationship with them so it’s all part of the community. So the whole thing with this, and the university, just really feels like a big campus community. It feels together. You don’t feel isolated or separate.
Brighton Falmer
Psychology Student
University of Sussex
I’m from Saudi Arabia, but I’ve been in the UK for some time, as I basically had my secondary school education in England, in a boarding school, up in a town near Birmingham called Bromsgrove. Then I decided to continue studying in the UK. So I chose Sussex University, as I thought it had a good course for my subject. I’m in my second year now.
At first I wanted to do a placement, but I felt that the programme for international students is not that great for placements so I decided against it. I also choose Sussex Uni because I was told that Brighton was a really nice city to live in and thankfully I have indeed found that indeed it is. I guess some of the plus points for me are that it’s a really open minded place, with a lot of nice, friendly people and there is a lot of cultural variety for a relatively small city. It also has great transport links to London and then all over the UK. There are also a lot of really interesting independent shops that you can go to, even just to browse.
As for the less good points, I would say that coming from a Middle Eastern country it is really annoying that so many things seem to closes so early here. Even shops and cafes and everything seem to close so early, so it’s kind of frustrating because you finish your lectures at around 5 sometimes, and you’re like “oh let’s go grab a cup of coffee” then it’s ‘oh no you can’t’ as everything’s closed.
I chose this particular accommodation because it’s right next to the university, but it still wasn’t totally connected to the university. I actually prefer to have a feeling of autonomy, that feeling of not being too connected. From many of my friend’s experiences, university accommodation often isn’t that great and you sometimes have to share with a lot of people. I have a shared flat but in the university you share with 10 people sometimes, which is fine if that’s what you like but that’s a bit much for me. Here I share with five people. I find it suits me. That’s why I’m here for my second year. It’s also just so conveniently located, right at the campus and right beside the rail- way station. I like that this building is new and really nicely appointed, with a quality feel, but I initially chose it for the location and its safety – safety is
a big deal for me. I like that there are two check in points, So it’s difficult to get in if you’re not a resident or an authorised person, so it feels very safe on the inside. Ian, the manager has got to know everyone and likes to take care of everyone, which is really nice too.
My room itself is very comfortable and great to work in. I also like that there’s a good double bed. The cooking facilities are good too. In a shared flat you have to rely on the people that you’re with. Last year I wasn’t blessed with good flatmates, so it was a bit of a mess most of the time, which wasn’t great, but this year seems a lot better. The general feeling is alright, and I’m in my second year of my undergraduate course, so I’ve got one more year to go.
I’m not 100% sure about staying in the UK after that, as I was thinking of doing my Masters somewhere else. Maybe Canada. My eventual plan is to be a clinical psychologist.
I’m currently studying at University of Sussex, a Masters in Management. I’m a post graduate student, I’ve already got a degree. I thought it would be good to come to Brighton, as my friend used to study in Brighton and she was saying how great this place is, it’s really nice and everything – the people here and the places are really pretty and the people are really really nice here. So I decided to check out the Uni here and to come here and study.
Brighton as a place was recommended to you by friends through friends who had studied here, so I kind of heard about it through that. So far I have found that this is true. The people here are really nice and very friendly. Really I mean I’ve had an enjoyable time here.
I chose this accomodation because it’s very near the university for studying and when I was looking at the pictures of the rooms, it looked pretty nice and everything. Overall it seemed good. I saw it online to start with, but the feeling of being here is nice, it’s not disappointing, it feels like I hoped it would be.
At first I thought the cooking area would be like, you have to walk past it to get to your room – apparently it’s not which is a pretty good thing for me because sometimes it might be a bit noisy if people were cooking there. So it’s actually better, So the communal cooking bit is separate. So I don’t get noise when I’m studying in my room.
I share the flat with share with five people, but I’ve also made friends from the accomodation who are not in my flat. I met my good friend Isis at Uni and then I found out that she is also staying here then.
When we met in uni we then discovered that we were in the same accommodation, which was great. I’m staying in this accommodation till I complete my Masters. I may stay on longer in the UK. It depends on if I find something. As suitable job I can do here. So maybe if I get a job in England I would quite like to stay working here.
Brighton Falmer
Management StudentI found this accommodation online but I had someone to introduce it to me. My friend back home, introduced me to a friend of hers who could show me this flat and I already knew other people that had been studying in Brighton, who had all recommended it. I think that Britain as a whole is really a good place.
I come from Shanghai, which is near to the sea, as is here. though, of course, Shanghai is a huge city, so it’s a very different atmosphere. There a lots of great things about Shanghai. Some of it is beautiful and there’s a lot to do and see. For me it’s nice to be in a smaller and very different place, but also somewhere close to the sea. It kind of makes it feel more like home.
It may sound funny reading this if you’re from the UK, but what I really love the most is that the weather is a little cold. Shanghai seasonal temperatures are very extreme, so the thing that’s so great is that it’s not that cold in the winter and, most importantly for me, it’s not oppressively hot in the summer. I actually really love that. In Shanghai it’s hard to go outside for long periods, without having to rush back into air conditioned spaces. In Brighton I can be outdoors in comfort all year round and just enjoy this kind of warm but not too warm feeling. Just being outside in fresh air is so lovely. Even actually, when I came back from a trip to London yesterday, I could actually feel the air was so fresh here in comparison. Because you’ve got not so much traffic, it’s not such a big city and just the sea everywhere, so it’s really nice air. When I go to London I’m just a little uncomfortable with the air, I was in Lancashire last year and the air was fresh there too. I did my
undergraduate in Preston at UCLAN, The University of Lancashire. I got a 2:1 in Management and now I’m doing my Masters in Management here.
I’m in a different flat from my friend Claire. Six people altogether. I have five flatmates. We’ve got a bigger kitchen than the five people flats. We’ve got a really nice kitchen and I love cooking something. I’ve found the Chinese food in restaurants and takeaways here a little bit disappointing, So far I’ve not really found anywhere I really like. The ingredients are available here though, when you know where to shop. All the fresh vegetables and garlic and ginger etc. All the meat and fish is in most good shops and there you can buy the more specialist Chinese ingredients like spices and sauces. They mostly keep in the cupboard or fridge for a long time anyway.
So I make proper good fresh Chinese food just for myself and sometimes I will introduce my new friends to it. My friend Claire. She’ll come and eat with me. My flatmates are mostly from India.
So I’m learning a lot about India. Though we’ve not tried each others food yet. I’m happy with the flat set up though. The room is good to study in, it’s a really peaceful place although there’s sometimes some trains go over, which I can hear, but only if the window is open, but even then they aren’t that noisy.
I don’t use the common room much. I mostly just come in, and go to my room, and have a rest. I have a lot of classes, so I really need some rest. I feel it’s more comfortable to study in my room. because that’s my personal place.
Maybe the common room would be a good rest place if there were comfortable sitting areas and I think that’s being organised. I really like it here though and the garden areas are lovely to sit and relax in, though not in the colder months, which are even too cold for me to sit in a garden.
Brighton Falmer
Brighton Falmer
