Dutch firm Mecanoo wins university brief
DUTCH architects’ practice Mecanoo has won its biggest ever UK project – a new £200m engineering campus for the University of Manchester.
Mecanoo, which is already working in Manchester on the HOME arts centre at First Street, topped an undisclosed five-strong shortlist to win the job which is the first part of a £1bn planned expansion of the university.
The Manchester Engineering Campus Development (MECD) is the largest individual project within the wider masterplan and will involve the relocation of a number of the university’s engineering schools into a regenerated site in the heart of the existing campus.
The 60,000sq metre scheme will be a mixture of new build and refurbishment, including the overhaul of the university’s grade II-listed Oddfellows Hall.
Mecanoo founding partner Francine Houben said the scheme would be run from the practice’s Delft headquarters but with support from its satellite office in Manchester.
She told Architects Journal the practice was ‘extremely happy’ to have landed the prestigious contract, but was tight-lipped on how the scheme may look: “Most of it will be new build, but let’s wait and see. We need to create a pleasant atmosphere; a learning environment to provide moments of inspiration,” she added.
The building is scheduled for completion in 2018.
