23 August 2022 · By Fran Williams. Photography by Greg Holmes and Rob Parrish
Glenn Howells Architects has completed 125 Deansgate in the heart of Manchester’s oldest thoroughfares
Providing 11,892m² of workspace and retail, the building is wrapped in a deep-red terracotta skin, a bespoke terracotta façade designed to echo the palette of its industrial heritage. It sits amid some of Manchester’s most notable buildings, including the Grade I-listed John Rylands Library opposite.
The scheme connects the commercial district of Spinningfields to the west and the civic centre around Albert Square to the east .
Its terracotta cladding was delivered through modern method of construction using an entirely prefabricated unitised system. This approach was developed in collaboration with Manchester City Council and Historic England to ensure the construction retained intricate detailing.
The prefabricated assembly also helped contractors to deliver within a restricted city-centre site.
Interlocking fenestrations passively incorporate shading and energy efficiency and contribute to the building's BREEAM Excellent rating.
125 Deansgate has been let out to co-working provider Spaces and is one of the largest single co-workspace lettings in the UK.
The building replaces Holford Associates’ 10-storey PoMo Lincoln House office building (1986) at 123-127 Deansgate and forms part of the wider redevelopment of Brazenose Street and Lincoln Square.
Glenn Howells Architects submitted plans for the office building back in 2015.
Terracotta on site during construction
The building was originally commissioned by the Worthington Family, whose desire was to gift the city with a noteworthy building that would stand the test of time in a nod to previous industrialist families that built Manchester’s rich architectural legacy.
Their brief was to provide a contemporary new workplace which could cater for any size of business, with the floorplates being optimised for efficiency and flexibility. Close collaboration and engagement with the family throughout the creative design process drove the project beyond just a conventional office.
The challenge of this project lies in the pivotal site location. This required a building of outstanding architecture, whilst the context called for exceptional materiality and detailing from the macro to the micro scale. The resulting façade design, with the deep, scalloped and fluted red terracotta piers and spandrels come together to create a crafted façade.
The design has strong vertical proportions, conveying a sense of robustness and strength which is evident on many of the historic buildings in Deansgate. The fabric first approach creates an environmentally responsive façade, with a varied intensity of piers dependant on the orientation, with the southern elevation having more primary piers than the east and west elevations, finely balanced to manage daylight and solar gains.
The key innovations in the construction of the façade were to deliver a prefabricated modern method of construction that seeks precision and clarity in details, working diligently with the subcontractors throughout procurement. Dav Bansal, partner, Glenn Howells Architects
A search was conducted for a suitable alternative location available in the city and during this process, it was identified that a new home would not be available in the short term. So BT decided to acquire a lease on 125 Deansgate and utilise this building alongside Dial House until a longer-term option could be identified.
BT occupies floors 7-11 of the building and it is home to colleagues from a range of business units including Global, Enterprise and its corporate support units. The company has designed the floors to provide flexible spaces for their people as well as collaboration zones and individual work areas. The building has been designed to support hybrid working and colleagues sit within ‘neighbourhood’ spaces where they can collocate with others from their team.
125 Deansgate exceeded all requirements including providing the opportunity to adapt the floor spaces to meet BT’s needs, proximity to public transport and being centrally located to allow commuting between BT buildings as required. The large windows provide exceptional light into the floors and offer superb views of the Manchester skyline.
Headline results from the C-Sat survey (November 2021) are extremely positive. Overall, satisfaction has jumped 71 per cent. Simon Bailey, communications lead, BT
Start on site August 2017 Completion July 2020 Gross internal floor area 11,906m² Gross (internal + external) floor area 14,415m² Form of contract Single-stage Design and Build Construction cost £35 million Construction cost per m2 £2,354 Architect Glenn Howells Architects (RIBA 0-3 with an executive role on façade for RIBA stages 4-6) Executive architect Leach Rhodes Walker (excluding façade) Client Worthington Properties (original client) Structural engineer Fairhurst M&E consultant Hoare Lea QS Deansgate Contractors (previously Marcus Worthington & Co.) Project manager Deansgate Contractors (previously Marcus Worthington & Co.) Main contractor Deansgate Contractors (previously Marcus Worthington & Co.) CAD software used Vectorworks
Airtightness at 50Pa 3m3/h.m2 Heating and hot water load 24.57 kWh/m2/yr Design life 60 Years BREEAM rating Excellent, 72.8% Annual CO2 emissions 20.4 kgCO2eq/m2
Tags Ceramic tiles Glenn Howells Manchester
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