Oxford Road

Located in the heart of Manchester's student district, the scheme provides 20no. PBSA student apartments and a ground floor retail space in place of an existing bank on-site.

Working closely with the Local Planning Authority, the scheme has undergone several design iterations identifying the site's significance to the local area.

Corner of Oxford Road & Grosvenor Street

Bay Elevation - Oxford Road & Gorsvenor Street

The proposal for Oxford Road is a scheme which has been carefully curated to work within the constraints of the existing building on site, whilst addressing requirements from the Local Planning Authority (LPA).

The design not only seeks to re-use and retrofit the existing building, but also aims to create a piece of contemporary architecture which is fitting to it’s current and future surroundings; becoming a visual marker on the edge of Oxford Road and Grosvenor Street.

Bay Elevation on Grosvenor Street

During the design development stage, through careful dialogue and pre- application discussions with the LPA, the scheme will transform the current derelict site into a building of appropriate scale, function and appearance to the local area; continuing the transformation of the local area through good design.

The existing concrete structure spans between each floor from the top of window to underside of window sill above, which prevents the scheme from incorporating floor to ceiling glazing. To maximise the ratio of glazing on the facade, the window extends to the top of the existing window opening with the internal ceiling running into the rear of the window frame. The window bay has been designed to create a flush glazing profiles, instead of creating a deeper reveal as the previous scheme.
This creates three distinct 'layers' on the facade; the existing cladding line, G.R.C solid infill panel & aluminium window and perforated cladding element.

Project Information

Client:

Soller8 Ltd

Location:

Oxford Road, Manchester

Sector:

Multi-residential

Services:

Architecture, BRPD

Status:

Tender

Design Team:

Gavin Watts

Sarah Jin

Anna May

Ellie Platt