Review of meeting with Luke Petty and Bryn Mainwaring of Walker Simpson Architects (WSA), and Michelle Richardson of Drivers Jonas LLP at the offices of Walker Simpson on Piccadilly, Manchester on 12th November 2008.
About the Interviewees:
Michelle Richardson is a Senior Project Manager for Drivers Jonas and has received details of my interest in discussing the Brownley Green project from Philip Whelan the property manager for The Manchester College (formerly ManCAT and City College Manchester).
Luke Petty and Bryn Mainwaring are both architects who are working on the Brownley Green project for The Manchester College. Petty is a graduate of the Manchester School of Architecture as his work can be found in the MSA Year Book 2007, he is involved with some part-time tutoring. Mainwaring has published the research paper ‘Toosyntax’ with Ben Elliot, it can be found in the Manchester Architecture Papers 2000.
Key meeting notes:
The project is currently submitted for planning approval and Walker Simpson have prepared their Stage D report. I have reviewed the contents of the planning application from Manchester City Council’s planning portal PublicAccess and this provides a significant level of information to start a discussion.
The Willow Park Housing Trust (WPHT), from whom the college lease the existing Brownley Green construction centre, currently owns the site. The college shall be purchasing the whole site and the WPHT will be vacating the site and moving to alternative premises. The neighbouring residential planning applications are understood to be the work of WPHT, but in light of the current financial climate, these projects have been put on hold. The Hollyhedge Road roundabout is due to be transformed into a traffic-signalled crossroads due to the proposed Metrolink and adjacent tram-stop.
The design team are experiencing significant difficulties with sewers that run across the site and the utility firms involved. Petty stated that their design sought to use a ground source heat pump, but were discouraged due to concerns raised in an ecology report stating that it may result in a temperate rise to the watercourse that would have a negative impact on the local ecology. This has had a big impact on their goal to achieve a BREEAM excellent rating, and it is anticipated that it can only be achieved if the client receives a significant grant towards the installation of photovoltaic cells. The efficiency of these would be such that all of the proposed buildings would have to have PV cells on their roofs to generate enough energy to classify the smaller first phase as a BREEAM excellent development. WSA have used north facing saw-tooth roofs for the construction workshops with considerately source timber cladding. They propose using refurbished shipping containers as the storage and WC pods within the portal frame workshops. Petty explained how they have sourced cubicles and furniture made from compressed recycled plastics and wants to leave services exposed to help educate the students.
The local community shall have access to some of the college facilities such as the learning resource centre, radio studio and performance arts spaces. The radio studio shall be used by Manchester based community charity Radio Regen. In addition, there is potential for WPHT to lease rooms for use by the local community to hold residents meetings. Petty stated that a key precedent for the construction visitors’ centre was the Genesis Project at the Somerset College of Arts & Technology. Mainwaring referred to the Learning Skills Council’s (LSC) Colleges for the Future strategy and documentation for further general information.
Petty stated that Walker Simpson had used the Ecotect software to provide analysis of their proposals and inform their design.
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