Brick Awards 2019 Shortlist

We are delighted that two of our recently completed projects have been shortlisted for the 2019 Brick Awards. Baker Place, Manchester and Warehaus, Ancoats have both been shortlisted in the medium housing development category.

At Baker Place the scheme places strong emphasis on the well-being of residents through a focus on daylighting, landscape, generous private and communal external spaces and sustainability. The scheme comprises 67 apartments across three buildings, ranging in height from four to five storeys, arranged around a landscaped communal courtyard.

Apartments have been carefully considered to make them not only wheelchair accessible, but also generously sized and with high levels of natural lighting. Spacious, highly glazed central stair and lift cores open out onto the street and the courtyard, increasing legibility whilst providing opportunities for chance encounters between residents.

The material selection is borne out of a desire to create a cluster of mellow buildings that sit comfortably within this natural setting. As such the external wall material is a ‘stoney buff’ coloured brick, which provides a gentle contrast to the retained trees.

The Warehaus development comprises of the restoration and conversion of an existing building named the ‘German Warehouse’ and the creation of two new residential buildings providing 32 new homes in total.

The arrangement of the new blocks reinforces the historic grid-iron street pattern, while its appearance celebrates the character of the Conservation Area. Although contemporary in style, the proposed form and brickwork detailing of the new buildings takes reference from the retained warehouse and surrounding context.

The parapet gable frontages of both buildings reference the character of the existing mill buildings, and serve to establish a relationship with the architectural vernacular in terms of proportion, verticality and the relationship of solid to void.