Arts Council

After a decade in an office that was barely visible and poorly accessible, the Arts Council took a lease on a new-build office in a former industrial area of Manchester, with a fully glazed ground floor, originally intended for shops. Their ambition was for a welcoming environment in which to host multiple meetings with their regional arts partners; we responded to this by making a suite of small stand-alone structures on the ground floor, like houses separated by passages and squares. These meeting rooms are robust masonry on the outside and warm timber on the inside, populated with sculptures from the collection in the deep window reveals. The offices on the upper floors are a suite of airy rooms in wood and concrete.

As a result of the extensive passive environmental strategy, the project achieved BREEAM Excellent rating, and was awarded the BREEAM Special Award for Government Sector Achievement. As a working environment it is calm, generous and comfortable; the daylight plays across the warm timber and the cool concrete. A series of informal social spaces are woven through the working spaces, beside the stairs, with a café on the ground floor and a library on the first.