High life: Manchester joins London's residential race to reach for the skies.With demolitions complete and piling under way, work is progressing on site to create the UK's highest living space. The 48-storey building designed by Manchester-based Ian Simpson Ian Simpson is an English architect and one of the partners of Ian Simpson Architects, established in 1987 with Rachel Haugh. The practice is based in Manchester with offices in London. Architects, will include over 200 skyline apartments and a 285-room five-star Hilton Hotel. Following the podium-and-tower model, 45 floors of accommodation will sit on a three-storey base, which will in turn define a new piazza and contain lobbies and publicly accessible hotel facilities. Surrounded predominantly by four- and five-storey Victorian buildings, this new landmark tower will force Manchester to address the debate that continues in London concerning the distribution of towers within historic city centres (AR March). However, when describing his plans, Simpson underlines his committed belief that beautifully designed tall buildings can enhance historic contexts, predicting that with relatively narrow residential floor-plates, elegant slender towers will improve people's perceptions when seen in contrast to earlier and more bulky office developments. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The envelope of the 156m-high glass tower will be a fully sealed, modular, glazed glaze n. 1. A thin smooth shiny coating. 2. A thin glassy coating of ice. 3. a. A coating of colored, opaque, or transparent material applied to ceramics before firing. b. curtain walling curtain wall Nonbearing wall of glass, metal, or masonry attached to a building's exterior structural frame. After World War II, low energy costs gave impetus to the concept of the tall building as a glass prism, an idea originally put forth by Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies system, including silk-screened fritting frit n. 1. The fused or partially fused materials used in making glass. 2. A vitreous substance used in making porcelain, glazes, or enamels. tr.v. and an insulated in·su·late tr.v. in·su·lat·ed, in·su·lat·ing, in·su·lates 1. To cause to be in a detached or isolated position. See Synonyms at isolate. 2. 'shadow box' effect. Designed to emphasize the building's verticality, horizontal joints have been minimized, metal panels and projecting shading fins run across a number of floors, and each elevation is orientation specific, adding richness and individuality to the proposals. South-facing apartments are protected by a glazed buffer zone buffer zone n. A neutral area between hostile or belligerent forces that serves to prevent conflict. Noun 1. buffer zone , a development of No 1 Deansgate (AR February), which allows occupants to inhabit protected external spaces with spectacular views across the city and the surrounding countryside. At level 23, the tower cantilevers, accommodating a publicly accessible sky-bar that separates private residences from hotel rooms. This dramatic formal move is then balanced by the rooftop crystalline blade, which, as an extrusion of the louvred facade, clearly demonstrates Simpson's keen desire to articulate Manchester's skyline, reminiscent perhaps of his wilful wil·ful adj. Variant of willful. wilful or US willful Adjective 1. determined to do things in one's own way: a wilful and insubordinate child , but nevertheless distinctive, copper spike that crowns his building at Urbis (AR April 2000). After the success of the city's Commonwealth Games Commonwealth games, series of amateur athletic meets held among citizens of countries in the Commonwealth of Nations. Originated (1930) as the British Empire games, the series is held every four years and is patterned after the Olympic games; women have participated in 2002, Manchester's support for this landmark project is a true reflection of the city's ambitions to maintain its role as regional capital of the north-west, and critically as a commercial development has become a popular success story with the emerging community of city-centre dwellers. Remarkably, 200 of the 219 one- and two-bedroom apartments have already been sold, with only 12 of the penthouses still available. The tower is due for completion in autumn 2006. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion