For project owners and contractors
Remote-site accommodation has to provide everything the site lacks.
At a remote site nothing can be taken for granted: no mains water, no sewer, often no power connection and no hospital down the road. Accommodation there is a small, self-contained settlement, and it has to be planned as one.
Distance changes the brief
In a city, workforce accommodation draws on what is already there: utilities, shops, clinics and public roads. At a remote site those services have to be created or brought in, and each becomes part of the development. Water may come by tanker or from a treatment plant on site. Power may come from generators until a grid connection is available, if one ever is. Waste has to be treated on site or taken away.
The planning shifts accordingly. Room layouts still matter, but the harder questions are about supply: how much of each service the site needs at its peak, how it arrives and is stored, and what happens when a delivery is late or a plant breaks down.
Most of that supply depends on access. Crew buses, supply trucks and emergency vehicles rely on one road that has to stay usable all year, with space at the site for deliveries, storage and parking. Remote land also brings its own approvals: permission for the use, environmental conditions and, where the land belongs to a government entity or an operator, that landowner's own rules.
Where the accommodation sits within the land is a question of its own. Before a layout is fixed, check what the chosen spot is close to: drainage paths and ground that floods, sources of pollution or smell, water supplies and wells, main roads, family housing and the work areas themselves. In Abu Dhabi, the Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre's code of practice for temporary employer-supplied accommodation (CoP 18.1, version 4.0, July 2024) sets siting criteria on several of these points, so a spot that looks convenient on the map may not be one the accommodation can use.
What the site has to supply
Water
Drinking water, and water for washing, cooking and cleaning, with enough storage to cover a late delivery or a treatment outage. The questions to settle early are where the supply comes from, how its quality will be checked and how long the stored water lasts if supply stops.
Power
Generation sized for cooling at peak summer load, with standby capacity so that one failure does not leave residents without air conditioning in the heat. Which loads must keep running through an outage, such as cooling, water pumps, fire systems and lighting, determines how the standby supply is arranged.
Wastewater and waste
Treatment or collection that meets the environmental conditions set for the site, placed downwind of living areas and away from water storage. Abu Dhabi's temporary accommodation code allows three routes for sewage: connection to a public sewer where one exists, removal by a registered tankering contractor, or a treatment plant on site, which is licensed separately. The route affects land take, truck movements and approvals, so it is chosen early.
Shade, cooling and fresh air
Shade over walkways and waiting areas, ventilation in rooms, kitchens and washrooms, and cooling that keeps up through the hottest months. The same code sets ventilation and air-conditioning requirements for living and service buildings, so the design should show how it meets the current figures rather than rely on rules of thumb.
Food
A kitchen and dining facility that runs on shift times, with cold storage and supply arrangements that allow for distance and delay.
Medical care
First aid on site and a rehearsed plan for getting injured or sick people to hospital, including road or air access where the distances call for it.
Emergency access
A clear route for fire engines and ambulances into the site and between the blocks, emergency exits that stay unobstructed, and an emergency plan agreed with whoever will run the accommodation. Widths and equipment are checked for each site against the current codes. The main rules for workforce accommodation are summarised on a separate page.
Life off shift
Recreation, space for prayer, laundry and dependable connectivity. At a remote site there is nowhere else to go, so these matter more than they would in town.
Temporary, relocatable or permanent
The length of the need decides the building approach. A team needed for one construction phase may be best served by relocatable, factory-built units that arrive ready to connect and leave when the work ends. In Abu Dhabi, temporary accommodation is covered by its own code of practice, summarised on our workforce accommodation page. An operation that will run for decades justifies permanent buildings designed for long-term residents and lower running costs.
Three questions decide the choice: how long the team is needed, how firm that period is, and whether the accommodation could serve a later phase or another project. In Abu Dhabi, a licence for temporary employer-supplied accommodation covers a limited period linked to the building project it serves (CoP 18.1, clause 2.2), so if the need may outlast the project, the plan should say so at the start rather than assume an extension.
Many remote developments combine the two: a permanent core of kitchen, clinic and utilities, with accommodation that can grow or shrink around it as the workforce changes. Whichever mix fits, the infrastructure is planned for the site's whole life, because roads, utility routes and drainage are the hardest things to change later.
How long a remote site takes
The critical path at a remote site is rarely the accommodation buildings. Factory-built units can be manufactured while the ground is prepared. What takes longer is everything around them: permission to use the land, the access road, water and power supply, wastewater treatment and the approvals each of those requires.
Starting those workstreams first, and in parallel, is what brings a remote site into use on time. It also argues for thinking about accommodation early in a project's life, often before the main works contract is let, rather than leaving it to the contractor once work has begun.
Leaving the site in good order
Temporary accommodation has an end date, and the plan should say what happens then. Relocatable buildings can move to the next project. Foundations, roads and utility connections can be kept for a future use or removed and the land reinstated. Agreeing this at the start, with the landowner and the relevant authorities, avoids an abandoned site and a dispute over who pays to clear it.
In Abu Dhabi, the temporary accommodation code makes this the employer's obligation: at the end of the lease period, the employer must vacate the accommodation, restore the land to its previous state and take the remains to locations approved by the emirate's waste management centre (CoP 18.1, clause 2.2). Land held by a government entity or an operator may carry further conditions in the lease or access agreement, so the two are read together.
Before the first unit arrives, record the condition of the land so that reinstatement can be measured against it. Then decide for each item, any treatment plant included, whether it moves on, stays for a later use or is removed, and who pays for each step.
Remote sites often arise in the energy sector, and at large scale they become accommodation villages with their own planning questions.
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