Career Services Unit

Hodder + Partners, Manchester, 1997

 

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First floor is cantilevered on reinforced concrete barrel vaults 

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  • First floor is cantilevered on reinforced concrete barrel vaults    
  • The south-east elevation: projecting masonry piers mark the structural grid    
  • South-west elevation     
  •     
  • Recessed top storey gives the impression of a two-storey building from the more intimate courtyard side     
  • The access stair; long bolts secure the threads to the wall    
  • The clerestory at ceiling level allows high-level natural ventilation    
  • View of window and balustrade    
  • Exterior view    
  • Site plan    
  • Ground floor plan    
  • First floor plan    
  • Second floor plan    
  • Section    
  • Isometric    
  • Detail section through rooflight and external wall    
  • Isometric of knuckle area showing glass and rooflight and detail plan of rooflight    

Campus building housing a University careers service, software rooms, meeting rooms and offices for sales, marketing and production

This office building is to the eastern edge of the University of Manchester campus characterised by ‘pavilion’ buildings which stand in space rather than define it. It seeks to ‘stitch’ together the abrupt ends of the adjoining buildings and create a collegiate courtyard.

A wall of polished concrete panels defines the two edges of the site and completes the courtyard on which sits the layered and rendered building. Two folded planar roofs envelop the layers and intersect to generate a reception/entrance hall which rises through the three storeys.

Link bridges bisect the space joining the office accommodation housed within the concrete framed flexible wings. Service accommodation is articulated at the ends underpinning this flexibility.

Data

  • Begun: Feb 1997
  • Completed: Dec 1997
  • Floor area: 1,163m2
  • Sector: Education
  • Total cost: £1.3M
  • Procurement: JCT 80
  • Address: Prospects House, Booth Street East, Manchester, M13 9EP, United Kingdom

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