New Wakefield Street

Manchester

A 33-storey building for student accommodation. Designed by Hodder + Partners.

Summary

We have no objection to the principle of a tall building on this site next to Oxford Road Station and the student accommodation use proposed seems plausible at the edge of the University quarter. We found the analysis of a series of tall buildings marking the edges of the city core at railway stations broadly convincing. However, based on the images of the proposals provided, we think that further refinement of the materials and details is needed for the quality of this proposal to meet the standards of excellent architecture set out in the CABE and English Heritage Guidance on tall buildings. We also have some concerns about the lack of generosity in the external amenity space.

Public realm and student amenity

We welcome the ground floor social hub for students and the set back created along New Wakefield Street that provides some breathing space at street level. It is essential that this ground floor area has an active function fronting the street, a coffee shop or laundrette for example.

A development of this density on a small site demands a reappraisal of the public realm in the immediate and wider area. We would therefore like to see further analysis of how a scheme of this density fits into the network of routes, spaces and facilities across the University quarter and wider city. It will be important to safeguard an appropriate budget to ensure that the communal and public spaces are delivered to a high quality.

We are pleased to note that a roof garden has been introduced at fifth floor level but, acknowledging the management concerns, we still think provision should be made for further external communal space spaces, taking advantage of the stepped massing. We support the introduction of natural light into the corridors and the proposal to recess the doorways to each bedroom to allow access for wheelchair users to all rooms.

Built form and architectural quality

We think that the shifting and stepping form is a reasonable approach to the massing. However, it needs to be demonstrated that the cantilevers over the street at sixth floor level do not compromise the quality of the environment of the space beneath on New Wakefield Street or overshadow the common room and bedrooms on the floor beneath it.

We support the clear relationship between the internal arrangement and external expression and the detailed visualisation of the façade provided reassures us that the elevations have been carefully considered. However, we are concerned that the greyness of the cladding will look dull and flat in the Manchester climate and should be reconsidered to meet the exceptional quality of architecture we would expect for a tall building. We think a further simplification of the approach to the façade should be explored. Although the proposal to integrate the light shelf into the façade helps to create a degree of modelling, we are concerned that these elements will not work as light shelves if they become dirty. We suggest that these elements may work better as sills angled to avoid build up of dirt.

Given the rental values associated with student use, it will be important to ensure that sufficient budget has been allocated to achieve the quality of materials and details required for a tall building of this prominence. For example, the terracotta cladding proposed will only be acceptable if the finish is of high quality and the panels are sized to work visually with the scale of the elevations. Samples of the materials should be provided and the quality of materials, details and finishes and the treatment of the public realm should be secured through the appropriate use of planning conditions.

Finally, we expect tall buildings to take a robust approach to minimising energy use and reducing carbon emissions, exceeding the latest regulations and planning policies. We would therefore expect a higher BREEAM rating than Very Good to be achieved.