MMU seeks contractors for £25m arts faculty
MANCHESTER Metropolitan University (MMU) is pushing ahead with its plans for new £25m art and design studios.
It has put out a tender document seeking contractors to carry out the work which is due for completion in 2012.
It wants to refurbish the 30,000 sq ft Chatham building and construct 26,000 sq ft of studio space on the site of the Undercroft building at All Saints.
Architects Fielden Clegg Bradley have been appointed to design the new six-storey building with a rooftop exhibition area and refurbish the eight-storey Chatham building to incorporate the new ‘media lab’ and ‘design lab’.
MMU said it was funding the project and is not dependent on grant funding the could be vulnerable to central and regional government cuts. The North West Regional Development Agency (NWDA) has withdrawn promised funding from the MMU’s Birley Fields education and health campus in Hulme.
The school founded in 1838 – the first regional art school in England – made its name providing skilled artisans for the textiles industry during Manchester’s industrial revolution.
New masters courses are being launched in photography and film-Making and there will be a new undergraduate programme in interactive and broadcast media. The school will also work closely with the university’s scientists and engineers on concepts for the computer games industry.
