46 PROJECT REPORT: EDUCATION & RESEARCH FACILITIES
The project ties visually and functionally into Manchester’s industrial past as a “city of pioneers” as Mecanoo puts it
edge experimental research on everything from textiles to lasers to electric car design to robotics, in a wide range of spaces including flexible classrooms, lecture theatres and research laboratories, as well as specialist areas such as flight simulators, robotics, welding, and ‘heavy duty destructive testing.’ The building, designed by Dutch practice Mecanoo, is itself innovative in putting the research physically on show, and promotes engagement between departments internally and with the locality.
In the words of Mecanoo architect Otto Diesfeldt, a key design aim was “trying to open education up, make it visible, less rigid.” In so doing, the designers believe the building will be a major showcase for the creativity of UK engineering. Breaking down the inevitable scale of such a scheme was the key challenge for the architects (the detail design has been handed to BDP and contractor Balfour Beatty to deliver under the Design & Build contract). Mecanoo’s design makes MEC Hall more human-scaled, approachable, and therefore navigable for students and staff.
Heritage & site
The project ties visually and functionally into Manchester’s industrial past as a “city of pioneers” as Mecanoo puts it. It is a past
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK
that was heavily focused on textiles. The university’s origins also share this rich industrial history and heritage. Diesfeldt says that at an early stage the designers identified this “very visual” heritage as an inspiration – weaving machines are still in use on campus for research projects. Textile innovation is a key feature of the current engineering syllabuses, and will feature in research in the new building, incorporating modern materials like graphene.
MEC Hall as the development’s main building, manifests itself as the new reference point for the entire campus "like a cathedral in the historic centres of European cities," says the architect. The long, rectangular form sits in a dense site in the south of the city centre, sandwiched between the Manchester Aquatics Centre on Oxford Road, and the major thoroughfare Upper Brook Street, on which sits the university’s James Chadwick Building (the Department of Chemical Engineering), and the new Upper Brook Street Building – forming a key part of the development and housing heavy duty materials research and teaching spaces. To its north is a retained and extended listed building, and on the west flank is a further new addition, purpose-designed with tall spaces for ‘high voltage
ADF MARCH 2020
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100
