Architecture
With a project with as many diverse influences on it as this one, the challenge to our architects, Sheppard Robson, was to capture these whilst retaining a clear vision.
Birley Fields needed to be at once a community building, an MMU building, a building that relates to the park around it, a building that forms a gateway to the city centre, a recognisably sustainable building and a building that remains part of a wider campus.
The architect's task was to design a building that:
- Is welcoming, breaking down barriers to higher education, facing the heart of Hulme
- Presents an image of a place of learning with understated elegance
- Relates to the current generation of new MMU buildings, representing the image of MMU as a forward-thinking, innovative organisation
- Is a pavilion that can be viewed from a distance as an isolated object within a mainly green setting
- Can be seen from the Parkway, advertising the city and MMU's role in its future, becoming a recognisable visual reference point in the urban landscape
- Represents sustainable design in its architecture
- Connects back to the main MMU All Saints campus
East/West Section Elevation
- The cut into the east facade, addressing the Parkway and All Saints, focused on the primary student learning space
- The stepping atrium roofs, with their rationalised structure, representing public, shared and private activities
- The solid western sides of the atria
- The warm timber finish internally running up the north and south sides
- The ‘supporting actor’ of the simple plant boxes
- The transfer from inside to outside of the upper floors
- The cuts into the base at the entrance, forming an echo to the eastern leaning space
- The Veil overlapping the top of the building, dissolving the form of the building into the sky
- The base of the building increasingly open towards the west, connecting with the new square
