Maccreanor Lavington’s Urban Studio and Schulze+Grassov lead consortium to win ecologically driven Manchester masterplan
Our Urban Studio in partnership with Copenhagen practice Schulze+Grassov have won their first major masterplan in Manchester, to regenerate the ecologically rich Redbank area. The leading design architects and urbanists along with landscape architects OPEN and sustainability consultants, Useful Projects were chosen as part of a two-stage competition from FEC and joint venture partner Manchester City Council to work on the circa 20 hectare site.
The appointed team will transform the largely brownfield site into a brand new, mixed-used neighbourhood with community, diversity and nature at its core. Centred around the first phase of the City River Park and with a focus on sustainability and low carbon, once complete, Red Bank will feature a mix of recreational, commercial and residential spaces, including c4,000 new homes with an aspiration to deliver 20 per cent affordable housing through FEC’s delivery panel, Trafford Housing Trust, Great Places Housing Group and The Guinness Partnership. A planning application for the new neighbourhood is expected in spring 2022.
The winning approach was to create a new piece of the city, a ‘Wild Urbanism’ which builds on the current diverse landscape of the site, a green and ecologically considered masterplan which benefits from the neighbouring river Irk and valley. This new piece of the city will incorporate one of the city centres major green spaces, a intensified and wild corridor is proposed in which the new development will be intertwined complementing the site’s ecology and enhancing Manchester’s urban landscape.
Kevin Logan, (Director of ML Urban Studio) and Oliver Schulze (Schulze+Grassov) are both graduates of the Manchester School of Architecture, where they met in the 1990’s. Having built international careers developing highly respected architecture and urban design studios in Rotterdam and Copenhagen, they are now bringing their international experience back home to Manchester, where their journey to become architects and urban designers began.
Kevin Logan, Director of ML’s Urban Studio commented: ‘Our Wild Urbanism vision for a new community in Red Bank has been developed to positively respond to the challenges of the Climate Emergency, biodiversity breakdown and ensuring health and equality. We believe the integration of Wild Urbanism in Red Bank offers Manchester a new model for developing and delivering truly sustainable, distinctive and equitable neighbourhoods – a blueprint for urban life for the next generation of Mancunians.’
