The Lock Building
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The Lock Building
Ioana Marinescu Download Original
Inner-city Manchester apartment block consisting of 155 apartments over nine storeys
The Lock's unique feature is the full height light-filled central 'street'. The south-facing wall to the street is canted at 7 degrees to allow deeper penetration of daylight into the space.
Walkways are suspended from the glass roof and bridges from the walkways give access to apartment front doors. The public faces of the building respond to the different urban environments they overlook - one way a trunk road, the other way a canal corridor.
The building has an exposed roof structure and suspended walkways across the central atrium, which also provides all the circulation for the inhabitants. The central atrium is fully naturally lit and ventilated with a glazed roof.
Data
- Completed: 2005
- Sector: Residential
- Total cost: £18M
- Address: 41 Whitworth Street, Manchester, M1 5BD, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: MBLC
- Client: Dandara
- Structural engineer: Woolgar Hunter
- M&E consultant: Fulcrum Consulting/ WW
- Fire engineer: Fulcrum Consulting/ WW
- Quantity surveyor: Thomas and Adamson
- Landscape architect: Landscape Projects
- Acoustic consultant: BDP Acoustics
- Main contractor: Mowlem
Suppliers
- Joinery: A and M Joinery
- Windows and curtain walling: Anaco
- Steelwork: Aspinalls
- Insulated render: Astley
- M and E installations: Balfour Kilpatrick
- Zinc cladding and insulated cladding: Carlton Building Services
- Underfloor heating: Devi
- Glass blocks: Luxcrete
- Drylining: Mansells
- Roofing: Monoroof
- Lifts: Otis
- Rainscreen: Richmond Cladding
- Stone cladding and paving: Stone Central
- Roof membrane: Alwitra ICB