‘New’ Old Trafford Cricket Ground Goes For Planning

BDP's Manchester office before a winner is announced. BDP's Manchester office have submitted a planning application to redevelop the Old Trafford Cricket Ground to the local council. The proposal is a £32million second phase scheme that will raise ground capacity to 25,000 and add new media facilities. It is hoped that this phase of development will be completed by Autumn 2012 so that Old Trafford can apply to hold on the Ashes matches the following year (it missed out on this years series with Cardiff preferred by officials from the England and Wales Cricket Board).

The first phase of the redevelopment has already started with the local MP Andy Burnham taking part in the official turf cutting on September 13th. With a construction cost of approximately £12million 'The Point' is principally a multi-purpose function space with a capacity for 1,000 people as any thing from a conference facility to a formal dinner. The name of the venue was partly inspired by BDP's designs as explained by Chief Executive Jim Cumbes “Many names were suggested, some conference led and some cricketing terminology and many hours were spent deliberating over a fitting name that ticks all the boxes. ‘The Point’ was chosen as it encompassed a number of relevant factors: a subtle cricket term; the design of the venue; and a destination." Once complete a glass facade will provide views over the cricket ground whilst moveable partitions will allow the space to be divided into smaller venues.

According to the Lancashire County Cricket Club the new designs will feature a number of 'green' initiatives including rainwater harvesting, low voltage lighting, ground source heat pumps and solar panels. The scheme is supported by the North West Regional Development Agency.

Image Credit: BDP

Rossant Award 2009

The winner of the BDP Rossant Award will be presented on Friday 11th December at 6pm. This prestigious Award was initiated in 1977 to commemorate the late Lorrie Rossant who was an architect partner at BDP in Manchester; it is open to second year students from the School of Architecture in Manchester. The award celebrates the best visual communication techniques, including draughtsmanship and electronic representation. The judging panel comprises the President of the Manchester Society of Architects and the MSA Award Secretaries as well as selected individuals from BDP. Six shortlisted candidates will give a presentation at BDP's Manchester office before a winner is announced. Last year's prize was won by Simon Bellamy.

Manchester Society of Architect's Dinner 2009

The great and the good of Manchester’s architectural scene were gathered at the Hilton Hotel on Friday night (November 6th) for the annual Manchester Society of Architect’s Dinner. Held at the Ian Simpson-designed Hilton, on Deansgate, for the third year in a row, the evening saw 300 architects put behind them the gloom of the recession to enjoy an evening of fine food and live music, not to mention the chance to catch up with old acquaintances.

The host for the evening, current President of the MSA, Simon Green gave a speech in which he highlighted the numerous successes of Manchester’s practices including the recipients of the MSA Design Awards in April 2009 (with the winning entries shown on a big screen during the meal) and touched upon other reasons for architects in Manchester to celebrate, including the inaugural Manchester Architecture and Design Festival. Arguably the main event of the evening was a speech from RIBA President Ruth Reed, the official ‘response on behalf of the guests’. The first woman President in the 175-year history of the RIBA, Ruth Reed gave a speech that was on the whole light-hearted, commending the resilience of northern architects and how Manchester was an example of how to ‘regenerate’ a city although she did briefly touch upon on the ‘banned topic of the night’, the recession.

After dinner and the speeches had concluded the evenings live entertainment, ‘The Coolers’, got underway with even Simon Green and his illustrious guests (including Ruth Reed and Colin Pugh, Acting Head of the Manchester School of Architecture) taking to the dance floor.

On the whole the evening appeared to be enjoyed by all, a perfect balance of a formal occasion, to match the long and proud history of the MSA, mixed with the informality desired by hard-working professionals wanting to celebrate and not stand on ceremony.

The MSA Dinner 2009 was kindly sponsored by Ceram Excel.

Whitworth Art Gallery Competition Winner Announced

A winner has been announced for the competition to design an extension to the University of Manchester’s Whitworth Art Gallery - MUMA. Originally the competition had attracted over 130 entries from a number of internationally acclaimed practices. MUMA (McInnes, Usher, McKnight Architects) have been selected for the £12million extension with plans being worked up during the early part of 2010 to form part of Whitworth’s Heritage Lottery Fund bid.

Chancellor of the University of Manchester Tom Bloxham (or Urban Splash fame) chaired the judging panel and whilst calling all of the shortlisted designs “outstanding” said that “MUMA’s design shone in its thoughtful and sensitive response to a complex brief.” He went on to say that “Amongst many delightful touches the prospect of visiting a cafe in the tree canopy was particularly enjoyed, along with many further connections between gallery and surrounding park landscape. MUMA demonstrated care not only in the development of new designs but also in their consideration of improvements to the existing building.”

MUMA’s proposal includes an art garden, second entrance, a new informal café, a landscape gallery and a study area that will allow visitors and researchers to get closer to the collections when they are not on public display.

The practices most recent work includes working on a £30 million overhaul of the Renaissance and Medieval gallerys of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Read More at BDOnline and the Architects Journal.

Image credit: Architects Journal + MUMA.

In Review | Isolative Urbanism: An Ecology of Control

Isolative Urbanism is a collection of essays from tutors and students of the BArch [Re_Map] Unit at Manchester School of Architecture. The unit, as its name may suggest, concerns itself with the mapping of the contemporary city, through analysing existing data, networks and how space is demarcated. Each of the essays presented deals with the resulting relationship between existing “urban conditions and space, public and private.” Within this framework the editors, Richard Brook and Nick Dunn, have seen fit to divide the essays into three categories: Policy, Utopia and Globalisation.

The introductory text, written by Brook and Dunn, aims to set the scene for the proceeding essays with a series of short sections that take the reader from the “notion of fragmentation” between art and architecture in the 1920s and 1930s through to Venturi’s description of the “decorated shed” and on to Paul Virilio’s musings on modern warfare. From this starting point it is clear that the following essays will deal with a myriad of challenging and complex issues. Each text is further contextualised by the placing of these theoretical studies within a setting, Barrow-in-Furness, the second largest town in Cumbria and a place referred to as a ‘30-mile cul-de-sac.’

Each essay provides the backdrop to an architectural solution that in most cases seeks to re-imagine or renew Barrow-in-Furness but without using the expected or clichéd methods that have become the norm in UK (and global) architectural policy for urban environments. These fresh perspectives often challenge the convention of established systems that have been backed by traditional capitalist ideologies and range from Grant Erskine’s proposal to remove all automobile-based transport from the town (with a 25,000 space car-park on the town’s periphery) to Ben Paterson’s plans to transform Barrow-in-Furness into a leading world port town.

At first glance these proposals may appear whimsical and far fetched but on reading the essay’s the argument behind each becomes clear and lends to them a certain credibility, a credibility strengthened by the depth of research. The essays do not go on to describe in depth the proposals, that is left to a double-page spread of greyscale images that tease at the possibilities presented but perhaps ultimately leave you wanting more. Nevertheless the rationale behind each provides a springboard for further debate on how the UK can be re-imagined in the 21C after a decade which has seen the rapid technological growth of the late 20C continue. The architectural world has been slow to catch up with the rapid changes in the structure of 'modern' society. What makes this brand of innovation proposed by the [Re-map] students so original is that they are neither dreams of an apocalyptic future nor are they unbuildable utopias, instead they sit in the playful realm of 'that's buildable' - if only we are brave enough to do so.

Seven shortlisted in Gateway House Competition

Seven practices have been shortlisted in an ideas competition to re-envisage the Richard Seifert designed Gateway House on Station Approach next to Piccadilly Station. Seifert, the British architect behind Centre Point and Tower 42, designed Gateway house in 1965 and it is estimated that up to 21million passenger pass the 6-storey 'lazy-S' builidng each year. The seven shortlisted practices are Hodder & Partners, former Woods Bagot boss Stephan Reinke, Stephenson Bell, Sheppard Robson, Aedas, Calederpeel and BDP.

Realty Estates, the land owners, have not specified that the proposals must keep the building, a move which has dismayed local campaigners who want to protect Manchester's 1960s heritage. The cost of the works could range from as little as £5million up to £100million. A winner is expected to be announced by the end of the month.

Image credit: JonWild on FlickR

The Corridor Vs The Maze

The Leech:

Manchester has inflicted a great tragedy upon it’s self in the last 50 years. Like all universities their student community has metamorphosed into a seasonal leech that instantly embodies a vast area of the city for 9 months before dispersing into a much sparser area for hibernation. The “Leech” substantially fluctuates the city’s population, however they do not appear to be affiliated to the city, they are a separate entity that follows it’s own rules and style of life. Except the “Leech” is a necessity, without it Manchester wouldn’t be able to support itself, as much as it’s unusual behavior and profound lack of awareness of the neighboring communities disrupt the social make up, it is an investment, that will eventually be dissolved by the city and become apart of the machine.

The student community of Manchester that sprawls across the corridor of Oxford Road neglects the permanent communities that make up the rest of Manchester and as as a result live an isolated life that could benefit greatly by becoming a key component in the wider context. However I do not believe that it is the individual students persona that causes the fragmentation, in fact this vast social divide has nothing to do with the social landscape, instead it is down to the simple geographical location of the University.

The Corridor:

Campus based Universities isolate themselves within a specific boundary, these work in outskirts of cities, but when a city adopts a university campus within it’s heart the student community is forced to accommodate the nearest residential zones and stay as close to where they study ignoring it’s surroundings. In the case of Manchester’s Oxford Road everything needed to live can be found on this one “Corridor”, stretched from Fallowfield directly in to the City Centre, which immediately causes the social separation of the communities. If one has everything in one place, why would one purposefully travel further to get what is already so close? Manchester is not the only case, Leeds for examples harbors the same problem along it’s Otley Road, although it appears to be a few years behind Manchester in terms of it’s severity.

The Maze:

The “Corridor” problem isn’t destroying Manchester, on the contrary, it harmless resides in it’s place, but a city is a single entity and in order for it to develop and improve the issues of the student community have to be dealt with. The occupation of the “Corridor” needs to disperse and fan out in order to be absorbed by the surrounding communities except the promise of a better city isn’t enough incentive for such a vast group of people. My solution, although abstract in form, does address the issues raised if Oxford Road was eliminated from Manchester and in it’s place lay a vast maze of roads that forced you to explore other areas of Manchester, perhaps then Manchester could evolve as an individual city.

Isolative Urbanism: an Ecology of Control

A new book has been published by two lecturers at the Manchester School of Architecture, Richard Brook and Nick Dunn. Entitled Isolative Urbanism: an Ecology of Control, the book is a collection of essays primarily dealing with issues surrounding the control of space, both public and private, with a myriad of other issues and topics explored within them. The essays have all been written by members of the Re_Map BArch Studio unit at MSA.

Forestry Commission Exhibits Student Work

Seven designs from the Second Year of Manchester School of Architecture (2008-09) have been selected for an exhibition by the Forestry Commission in the North West. Held at The Yan in Cumbria the exhibition highlights work undertaken by students in designing schemes for Grizedale Forest. As part of their research for the project students undertook site visits to Grizedale where they attended workshops in traditional methods of construction, including dry-stone walling and timber work, as well as exploring the Commission's public art programme and forest management processes. The exhibition will run until 30th of October 2009, it is free of charge but viewing is by appointment only.

3DReid’s New Co-Operative Headquarters

The Co-Operative Group seems to have ridden the recession without falls, last year it successfully acquired Somerfield and has now published and successfully received planning permission for a new head office in the heart of Manchester, right in the shadows of the prominent CIS Tower.

Co-Operative Group started in Manchester 150 years ago, and now stand as a leading company in the UK the design’s purpose is to house the additional administrative side acquired from the Somerfield deal, however 3DReid’s unusual form conveys a more subtle motive. The unusual plan shape, the inefficient curved edges, the vast loss of office space in return for a huge atrium. They are all there to promote the CO-Operative Groups ethos, so has the architectural equation changed in a modern environment, is it now function follows form follows advertisement, perhaps that is all we get from a capitalist society.

However 3DReid has created a somewhat refreshing office block that diverts from the typical glass cladded box. It looks at sustainability on a larger level and worker friendly environments, parking is limited as the local transport services are the advised use of travel, a vast atrium inside creates an open environment for it’s workers and leads the path for a new style of offices that are less enclosed, and more open.

As planning permission has been awarded, construction is due to take place at the start of 2010, with completion and opening set for sometime in 2012.

Images and video property of 3DReid