August 16, 2017 by CallisonRTKL

Lampwick is a Promising Sign of Housing to Come

Last week’s planning approval for Lampwick, a new 213-home build-to-rent development from Manchester Life, marks a significant milestone. It’s not necessarily because of the project itself, although it will bring much-needed, high-quality rented accommodation to New Islington. It’s because, in many ways, the development represents the future of planning and design collaboration in Manchester—and possibly even a model for the rest of the country.

Here’s why it’s so notable: Lampwick is among the first developments to be designed in accordance with the Manchester Residential Quality Guidance and the first to be brought to life by the guidance’s authors: Manchester City Council, Deloitte, Planit-IE and CallisonRTKL.

The guidance’s ground-breaking set of principles, which demands design excellence across all residential developments, is attracting interest from councils up and down the country eager to follow Manchester’s lead. Furthermore, it has just been given a prestigious planning award for innovation. The reason for its appeal is simple; it makes the assumption that great housing design is possible everywhere and for everyone, no matter the location or cost.

Lampwick provides one of the first opportunities to see this much-heralded approach in practice—and the results are promising. The project boasts exceptional quality homes and comfortable, safe, well-connected public spaces. Just as importantly, it creates a bold identity that reflects the distinctive layered context and scale of New Islington. It’s smart about its use of materials, scale and perspective, and also ambitious in its relationship with the canal and surrounding neighbourhoods. It’s eminently deliverable now and also agile for future use.

In short, the Lampwick project will provide a good example of what Manchester City has set out to do with the guidance. It balances best practice with innovative responses to contextual, demographic, cultural or geographic variables. In other words, it puts people at the heart of housing.

Given widespread adoption of the new guidance across Manchester and growing interest around the country, hopefully it’s a sign of more great residential design to come.

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CallisonRTKL

For more than five decades, Callison and RTKL have created some of the world’s most memorable and successful environments for developers, retailers, investors, institutions and public entities. In 2015, our two practices came together under the Arcadis umbrella, expanding our sphere of influence and the depth and breadth of our resources. Our team is comprised of nearly 2,000 creative, innovative professionals throughout the world who are committed to advancing our client’s businesses and enhancing quality of life.