Construction Students Get Insight to Open House Festival’s Bangor Courthouse Renovation

SERC’s Construction students were recently invited down to Bangor Courthouse, to witness the current work taking place to renovate the listed building into a permanent home for the Open House Festival and multi-purpose venue serving the town of Bangor.

Joanne Wells, Construction Lecturer at SERC, spoke about the visit, “Alison from Open House Festival has always been proactive in encouraging our students to get involved and to find out more about the regeneration of Bangor, as she feels it’s important to hear their views as it will affect their future.”

Joanne added “The visit involved ensuring all students and staff had the necessary PPE and health and safety advice on visiting a live construction site. When we arrived, we met Alison who gave us an update on the progress off the site. We then met the Site Manager, who gave us a tour of the building, highlighted the issues of working on an old building and the conservation requirements that must be adhered to as the Courthouse is a listed building."

Joanne continued “The visit was beneficial for the students, as they were able to relate the visit to topics they had been studying, such as the role of building control, construction management and budget issues.”

Joanne concluded by saying “The site visit really brought home the reality of working on a construction project in the current Covid/Brexit times, with increasing material costs and the issues of suitably qualified skilled workforce. It has inspired some students to seek work placements with local Conservation Architects who specialise in these specialist refurbishment projects.

The project is due to finish in August 2022 and we have been invited back to see progress in February and May before completion. The students look forward to returning to the building in the future.  

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