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Hollings Faculty, Manchester Metropolitan University

  • Location: Manchester
  • Client: Manchester Metropolitan University
  • Type: Refurbishment | Listed building
  • Value: £4 Million
  • Status: Completed

Cassidy + Ashton was appointed as architectural consultants to oversee the relocation of the Manchester Metropolitan University’s Hollings Faculty from the outskirts of Manchester to its city centre.

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What we did

  • Architectural consultancy

This project’s objective was to consolidate all of MMU’s Hollings Faculty onto its All Saints Campus, located within the existing Grade II listed Righton Building and Cavendish South Building.

The two buildings boast many historical architectural features. There are two internal atriums, each with a gallery of super imposed cast iron columns. Art Nouveau wrought iron balustrades lead to the first floor galleries and a glazed roof over, supported by iron trusses with open work spandrels, allows natural light into the ground floor area.

The £4m refurbishment was undertaken to provide facilities for MMU’s Departments of Apparel, Food Nutrition and Hospitality, and Tourism and Events Management.

As part of the redesign, the Righton Building now serves as the principal entrance to the relocated faculty. The ground floor of this building houses the Hollings Faculty office, with a student reception area offering access to Student Support Services, a Student Placement office, together with other accommodation for senior faculty staff. The original interior features of the listed building were not affected by the works.

A free standing elliptical ‘pod’ designed by Cassidy + Ashton is located within the two-storey atrium area. The pod serves as a board room for members of the senior management staff. Smart film glazing enables the pod’s glass partitions to be switched from translucent to opaque to offer greater privacy.

The Righton and Cavendish Building are now connected at ground floor level with a glazed link building to form a single entity. The first three storeys of the Cavendish Building were also extensively refurbished as part of the works.

Our architecture team coordinated the relocation of a huge amount of technical equipment from the original building and the ground floor of the new location predominantly provides space for the technical laboratories associated with the Faculty.

The first floor accommodates the main Garment and Pattern Technology Design Laboratories for MMU’s Department of Apparel. The six laboratories are separated by high specification electrically operated glazed folding partitions. Working closely with Niche Moveable Walls, based in Bury, we designed nine moveable walls to effectively create six individual work areas. The screens offered clear visibility to each study area as well as ultimate flexibility for different group sizes.

As part of the refurbishment, the second floor of the Cavendish building now provides space for seminar rooms, ICT Laboratories, design studios and staff offices.

The programme for the works was very fast track, with the buildings’ refurbishment completed in just under six months and ready to hand over in time for the start of MMU’s next academic year. Although a challenging and exciting project, the finished works has preserved two important listed buildings in Manchester’s city centre and provides an inspirational environment for future students studying at the university.

  • Royal Institute of British Architects - RIBA
  • Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors - RICS
  • Royal Town Planning Institute - RTPI
  • iso9001
  • iso14001
  • abr

Thank you

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