Offices delivered in ten weeks

The Portakabin Group has delivered a new office complex after just ten weeks on site following an investment of around £100 million in new paper manufacturing facilities at Smurfit Kappa’s Townsend Hook paper mill in Kent.

The scheme was constructed off site using a Yorkon building solution to bring the new facilities into use as fast as possible and allow the relocation of managers and engineers from a number of old brick buildings into a purpose-designed, modern and centralised office complex.

Townsend Hook is an extremely busy manufacturing facility, so by using an off-site solution, Smurfit Kappa could radically reduce any disruption caused by the office construction. The single-storey building was manufactured and partially fitted out at the Portakabin Group’s manufacturing centre in York and craned into position in just a few days over two phases.

The site for the building is located on a water table and close to the River Medway. The Portakabin Group engineered the building design to elevate it above the flood line, which meant installing the steel modules on to metre-high piers to mitigate the flood risk.

The L-shaped building provides both cellular and open plan offices, a canteen and staff welfare facilities such as showers and lockers.