This high quality residential development forms part of the New Cross Neighbourhood Development Framework (NDF), which we helped develop. It serves the Private Rented Sector (PRS) market and supports the ongoing regeneration of Manchester city centre by providing 373 apartments made up of 1, 2 and 3 bed homes, including affordable housing, and 12 serviced apartments over the top of two retail units at ground level, and a new public realm at the junction of Swan Street and Rochdale Road.
The development is set across a single building containing two towers – 32 and 14 storeys - connected by a 6 storey plinth. The glazed and red brick façade is organised in a grid following the vertical height of two storeys. The materiality was selected for its deliverability, buildability and future maintenance while also keeping in line with the emerging vernacular at New Cross of solid and robust elevations, often featuring brick, as can be seen with our adjacent AC Hotel and Mason Street Aparthotel projects. The angle of the façade’s vertical brick element provides visual interest as the sun moves around the building and shadows are cast on the façade.
Glazed cut-outs on a limited number of floors, across both towers, extend across two elevations for each reveal. These reveals respond to the extents of larger apartments within the proposals and add to the visual interest of the elevation when viewed both in proximity of the site and at distance.