Urban oasis project to ‘bring the outdoors in’
THE green light has been given to a new ‘urban oasis’ in Manchester city centre.
Plans have been approved to transform Lowry House into a range of new flexible workspaces, with a cascading interior garden taking centre stage and ‘biophilic design’ used throughout to bring greenery into the space.
The Bruntwood Works scheme will also see the creation of a new independent café on the ground floor, as well as a co-working area, lounge space, private workspace and phone booths.
Bleacher seating will be installed to create a new auditorium event space for up to 50 people.
The refurbishment will increase the number of flexible workspace desks by more than a third by adding 200 new desks, while additional meeting rooms and event space will be created that can be booked by the public.
The basement will also be transformed with sleep pods, a quiet study area, cinema room, fitness studio complemented by shower and changing facilities, and space to host pop-up shops and amenity.
Andrew Cooke, regional director at Bruntwood Works, said: “We’re thrilled to have had our plans for Lowry House approved and are looking forward to getting started with the transformation.
“Each of our Pioneer buildings have their own personality and with Lowry House we wanted to bring the outdoors in to help boost creativity and give our customers a truly uplifting work environment.” Lowry House’s green credentials will be boosted by a smart building management system to monitor the building’s carbon footprint and consumption to help support energy efficiency, features that all Pioneer buildings will have.
Reverse vending machines that offer rewards to encourage recycling are also being incorporated into the building layout.
This will support Bruntwood’s recent pledge to the Green Building Council’s Net Zero Carbon Commitment to make new buildings net zero carbon emitting by 2030 and old buildings the same by 2050.
Work on the 16-storey building is set to begin next month.
The Lowry House transformation has been designed by architect Russell Bridge and Paul Butler Associates supported with the planning application.