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urban design & landscape architecture JM241


rewilding the city: victoria north is setting a new standard for urban regeneration


Hilary Brett, Development Director at FEC, shares insights on how integrating green infrastructure, nature-led design, and public realm thinking into large-scale regeneration can help developers deliver healthier, more sustainable communities...


When we began planning Red Bank as part of the wider Victoria North programme, our shared ambition with Manchester City Council was never just to deliver homes. Our focus was on how regeneration could reshape what it means to live well in the city – especially in a time of climate pressure, biodiversity loss, and rising urban density. This is important to us in terms of the places we are shaping, and to ensure that we are making good decisions now to create value to support delivery in the future. The Red Bank area sits in the Irk Valley, a largely post-industrial


part of north Manchester that had become underused and fragmented over time. Its physical challenges were clear,


but so were its possibilities. With a river, a valley landscape, and a green corridor stretching out and connecting a number of existing communities, the foundations were there to reimagine what urban nature could look like. We were clear this could not happen in isolation, but rather we wanted to deliver a new neighbourhood which enriched this existing context. At the centre is City River Park which runs through the heart


of the Victoria North masterplan – 113 acres of green infrastructure, threading existing and new communities together. For us, reimagining this existing hidden green infrastructure shaped how we approached the design and now the delivery of development,


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