MSA Award 2021

Manresa House, our monastery in the city project for The Jesuits of Britain, has won the Community Unbuilt category at the MSA Manchester Society of Architects Awards. The project is currently under construction.

The building, known as a novitiate, it is a place of residence and training for prospective members of the Society who come to live at Manresa House during the first two years of their training. This group of ’novices’ is supported by a small group of permanent residents. The key design drivers have been the retention of an existing Victorian villa, maximising the connections with the large mature garden, providing clarity to the circulation, and creating a highly sustainable building that will be able to serve the community by as carefully balancing the requirements of openness and privacy, collective and private study as well as a quiet and reflection. The scheme has been designed with a ‘fabric first’ approach to sustainability but these are supported by a significant series of technologies including 8No. ground source heat pump boreholes and 150m2 of PV panels.