Trafford Council, Manchester Competition Entry Awarded Second Place
Apartments, Trafford, Manchester
Stephen Alderdice Studio has been awarded SECOND PLACE following the submission of a competition entry for a 521apartment, residential-led regeneration scheme near Manchester United’s Old Trafford in a riverside setting in Manchester.
Narrowly missing out on the commission, the competition entry sought to deliver 600,000 sqft of residential-led development.
The accommodation is split across 4 buildings that start at 15-storeys the the south and increase to 18-storeys and 24-storeys with views over the River Irwell. The development encloses a central courtyard, lined with commercial uses to the ground level. The housing mix seeks to meet the tenure split of Local Planning Authority guidance and offer 40% affordable housing. The development offers 521 apartments and 1279 habitable rooms.
The development is conveniently located 10 minutes by foot from the Lowry Outlet, Media City, Manchester United Stadium and The Imperial War Museum. All residents would find new cafés, restaurants, shops and gracious landscaped gardens, swimming and gym facilities on-site, with major companies, such as BBC and the broader Media City close-by and views to and access to the river, Trafford Wharfside is set to become a thriving residential and commercial hub. The development provides access to an overground station only a few seconds away and a new Metrolink route in Trafford Park.
The development is a vital part of a broader ambition for Trafford Wharfside to 10,000 new homes and 15,000 new jobs, new schools, and a revitalised arts sector.
The tall buildings which form the corners of the development share a similar appearance and ordered facade, but are finished with different facing brick and have different details around windows, string course, cill and base. Every apartment has outdoor amenity space in the form of inset balconies and all apartments have floor to ceiling glazing and Juliet balconies. The landscaped amenity at the centre of the scheme is the soft centre to the development.
The tower buildings are connected by lower 5-storey colonnaded apartments that complete a city block, rather than have point towers. This offers the potential for the central communal gardens to be a sheltered oasis in the midst of urban life.
The fulcrum of activity in the courtyard is the café. This metal-framed pavilion has a planted roof with a wildflower garden which can be enjoyed from above, bringing bio-diversity into the development, capturing rainwater, and softening the built environment.
Flexible nursery space up to 6,000 sqft includes secluded external play, close to the public gym entrance.
Excellent transport links make it simple for employees to get to work from Salford Quay, and but the development itself has 20,000 square feet of office space for small and medium enterprises (SME’s) all of which have street frontage to the outside and courtyard oversight on the inside.
The development is not wholly inward in its focus however. The buildings form an important cluster of tall buildings on the skyline of Salford and have views from apartments to the river. The top floors of the 24-storey building have fully glazed and colonnaded penthouse apartments over 1,2 and 3 storeys, with perimeter wraparound terrace to enjoy the vantage point of the building.
The cluster of buildings is a statement of intent along Salford’s wharfside, consciously presenting a vision of Manchester’s ambitions but avoiding a wholly glazed appearance, instead adopting and adapting the Victorian brick city for use in a development of scale that will encourage the continuation of an exciting regeneration of the river.