Client:
Manchester Metropolitan University
Location:
Manchester
Construction value:
£23,000,000
Completion:
April 2013
This major extension to the Manchester School of Art, which began life in the 1830s, has provided an engaging and lively environment for students and staff to work and study and has helped re-assert both the Art School and the University’s profile on the national stage.
A highly visible Vertical Gallery space acts as a shop window providing a showcase for the School of Art to the University and the wider City. Behind the gallery is an interactive ‘hybrid’ studio designed to break down traditional hierarchies and foster creative collaboration between disciplines instead.
Sharing space and creativity at the reinvented Manchester School of Art including interviews with staff and students.
Manchester School of Art is one of the oldest institutions of its kind in the UK: one of its most famous students being LS Lowry. The school was established in the 19th Century to help keep the region competitive in an international market and support regional industry in a wider marketplace. This remains an important objective for the Art School, and a key part of the brief was to help it bridge the gap between education and professional life.
Our approach was to express a modern interpretation of the traditional warehouse typology which made Manchester such a success through its textile trade in the 19th century.
The new build Benzie Building comprises two key elements. The first is the working heart of the building comprising open studios, workshops and teaching spaces known as the Design Shed. The second is the seven-storey Vertical Gallery - the link between the existing 1960s arts tower and the new studio building. This gallery provides a showcase space for students’ creations and a shop window for the faculty itself.
The aim of the building is to celebrate the commonalities of the various art and design disciplines and encourage students to work alongside each other and enjoy the crossover in an open, terraced hybrid environment, rather than working in the silos common to many art and design establishments.
With its vast glazed façade, it is also a building that proudly showcases its students’ work to all who pass by: a ‘Window on the Arts’.
2014: Education Estates Award HE project of the Year
2014: RIBA Stirling Prize Shortlist
2014: Schueco Excellence Award: Education
2014: RIBA National Award
2014: RIBA Award: North West Regional
2013: Concrete Society Award: Best Education Building
Project Manager:
Turner & Townsend
Structural Engineer:
Arup
M&E Engineer:
Arup
CDM Consultant:
Turner & Townsend
Cost Consultant:
Turner & Townsend
Landscape Architect:
Dan Pearson Studio
Contractor:
Morgan Sindall
Photography:
Hufton+Crow
