Manchester Piccadilly aparthotel building development, Architect, Accommodation property design
Manchester Piccadilly aparthotel
Commercial Architecture northwest England design by Bennetts Associates, UK
29 August 2024
News from the celebrated British architects studio of Bennetts Associates following the planning approval announcement today for the landmark 251-bed aparthotel in Manchester Piccadilly.
Design: Bennetts Associates
Location: bound by Piccadilly, Gore Street and Chatham Street – at the former Union Bank building.
image © Visual Planit
Manchester Piccadilly aparthotel building news
Planning approved for landmark 251-bed aparthotel in Manchester Piccadilly
29th of August 2024 – Proposals for the development of a landmark 251-bed aparthotel offering high-quality accommodation and public facilities in central Manchester, have been approved by Manchester City Council.
image © Visual Planit
Bennetts Associates was appointed as architect and principal designer for the scheme, which encompasses the Grade II Listed former Union Bank building and an adjacent ‘gap site’, a vacant and derelict plot of land that currently has an adverse visual impact on the streetscape. The site is minutes away from Piccadilly Train Station and is situated on a prominent corner at the heart of Manchester city centre, bound by Piccadilly, Gore Street and Chatham Street.
image © Visual Planit
The development seeks to reimagine and repurpose the vacant and neglected space by creating a new 34-storey building to house an innovative 251-bedroom aparthotel. It will feature a mix of one and two-bed rooms and studios, along with a diverse range of publicly accessible, community-facing amenities including a café, exhibition hall and a rooftop bar, restaurant and terrace.
Images © Bennetts Associates
The new-build tower connects through to the listed Bank building which houses further guestrooms and amenity space. The Bank has been unoccupied for over a decade and is in urgent need of repair and restoration to safeguard its heritage for future generations.
With a strong focus on placemaking, the team’s vision is to ensure the sensitive integration of existing and new buildings with a strong combined identity and relationship to their surroundings. The townscape approach involves the massing of the lower four storeys of the tower to create an open street-level block.
This would contain the main entrance to the hotel and form a unified base that sensitively links to the adjacent listed building in a way that addresses the scale of other buildings along Piccadilly and city-wide. The development will bring the listed building and vacant site back into active use, breathe new life into this urban block, significantly improve accessibility, and positively contribute to the unique historic setting while introducing a distinctive new building at an important gateway into the city.
Adaptive reuse is a key consideration, as the retrofitted former bank building will make up 10% of the total floor area. The design has been driven by a desire to be lean, with an aspiration to reduce finishes and expose both structure and services in a radically different hotel experience.
Overall, the development is targeting a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ accreditation at a minimum, as well as WELL Gold and EPC ‘A’ ratings. The hotel will also incorporate a centralised building management system and smart technology to optimise controls and reduce energy consumption and the total environmental footprint.
In addition, green infrastructure, biodiversity planting and biophilia will play a major role in the design of the tower, which includes an internal, vertical planted zone with automated watering and monitoring. The glazed amenity space at the top of the building is also enhanced with rooftop planting which will not only add to the visual appeal of the spaces but will also harness the wellbeing advantages of access to greenery in urban environments.
The site is located in close proximity to the Stevenson Square Conservation Area and several other listed buildings, and the design response took this factor into serious consideration. Bennetts Associates created a balanced, thoughtful and heritage-led design strategy that ensures the proposed development respects and celebrates the historical context of the surrounding area.
The planning approval follows an extensive consultation process with Manchester City Council, plus detailed meetings with Historic England and local stakeholders and residents. The wider project team includes structural engineer Price and Myers, MEP engineer Waterman Building Services, planning consultants Avison Young, heritage consultant Stephen Levrant Heritage Architecture, Equals Consulting acting as project manager and cost consultant, and JLL as carbon consultant and WELL assessor.
Simon Erridge, Director at Bennetts Associates, said: “This is an ambitious scheme, which reimagines a vital part of the city and will transform Manchester’s skyline with the addition of a new landmark. The project will revitalise a currently vacant and unloved site replacing it with an active and accessible building, and the listed Union Bank’s key spaces will be restored and re-opened to visitors and guests alike”.
Bennetts Associates
Bennetts Associates is one of the UK’s leading architectural practices, known for its pioneering approach to sustainability and dedication to achieving Net Zero Carbon. A founding member of the UK Green Building Council, the practice is the first in the world to secure Science Based Target approval and commit to the UN’s Climate Neutral Now campaign. Other firsts in the UK include the publication of LETI carbon ratings for projects, and certification under the NABERS scheme.
Bennetts Associates is responsible for numerous prominent projects, such as the Royal College of Pathologists and the Meta Office in London, the Edinburgh Futures Institute, Storyhouse in Chester, and the JLR Global HQ in Warwickshire. An employee-owned trust and certified B Corp, Bennetts Associates operates from studios located in London, Edinburgh, and Manchester.
Bennetts Associates Architects
www.bennettsassociates.com / @BennettsAssocs
Manchester Piccadilly aparthotel building images / information from Bennetts Associates
Location: Piccadilly, Manchester, Northwest England, UK
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