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PROJECT REPORT: HERITAGE & HISTORIC
SENSITIVE APPROACH
A sensitive approach to the historic fabric helped win over the planners, who nevertheless pushed shedkm to ensure the correct detailing and materiality
The developer conceived of the 123-home scheme in Manchester’s Piccadilly East, as a catalyst for the wider regeneration of a rundown urban area
pandemic, but shedkm’s design vision ultimately paid off, and the project took home two RIBA awards in 2024.
Experienced hand
Adapting historic buildings has been a key focus of much of shedkm’s regeneration and placemaking work, and this project focused on the refurbishment of one of the earliest and largest purpose-built textile machinery works in Manchester.
The mill was built in the 1840s by Parr, Curtis and Madeley, but a fi re destroyed it in 1861, requiring a rebuild. John Hetherington & Sons, another leading textile machinery manufacturer, continued to use the mill until the early 1920s when the industry fell into decline. The buildings were listed in 1994 as a rare example of a large, mid-19th century works. The works were earmarked to be incorporated into the HS2 regeneration framework, with the adjacent land to form part of the new route into Manchester Piccadilly Station. However, cancellation of the rail project’s connection into Manchester forced the local authority to look at alternative opportunities for development.
C&C saw great potential in the rundown
area, which was characterised by derelict industrial sites and dilapidated buildings,
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identifying Crusader Works as the catalyst for a wider regeneration to include more homes and apartments, schools and a hotel. The scheme is one of fi ve Manchester mills being reinvigorated by C&C and the latest phase in its relationship with shedkm, the pair having previously collaborated on Talbot Mill; the £250m Kampus development with joint venture partner Henry Boot Developments; and C&C’s ‘Bunker’ offi ces in Liverpool. c A series of one-, two- and three-bed apartments (singles and duplexes), are distributed across the site. The next door plot is occupied by the Phoenix building, a new 10-storey apartment block also designed by shedkm for C&C, providing another 75 apartments.
Initial space planning studies looked to use all the mill buildings, however, to help balance the project appraisal it was decided to replace one three-storey unlisted mill structure with the new Phoenix building. This helped support the relatively high investment that was going into the dilapidated listed buildings and made the overall scheme viable.
The special architectural interest of Crusader Works lies in its scale, industrial character and the aesthetic effect of the repeating bays and windows. Sidebotham describes the building as “a classic mill
ADF FEBRUARY 2025
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