Details
Location: Manchester
Brick Manufacturer: York Handmade Brick Company
Brick Name: Viking Thirkleby Blend
Architect: Bridge Architects
Brickwork Contractor: Kinlan Brickwok Ltd
About the project
No.3 Circle Square is a new build, 15 storey, environmentally sustainable office located in the heart of Circle Square, one of Manchester’s fastest growing innovation and digital tech communities. The project also includes a new public realm space; Symphony Gardens, and forms part of the wider Circle Square masterplan.
The building was designed speculatively for Bruntwood SciTech, and includes open-span 20,000ft² floorplates, a large arrival space, two retail units, secure bike storage & changing, and customer amenity provisions at ground and 14th floor levels including two roof terraces with panoramic city views.
The building uses a red brick, punched-opening elevation sat on an oversized-arched base – architectural languages which reference the local Georgian and Victorian red brick buildings and adjacent railway arches. The building sits alongside the adjacent NCP car park building, reading as a sturdy ‘brother and sister’ pair of carved red-brick buildings on Princess Street, with the pair of buildings complementing the rest of the Circle Square development, but using their own robust architectural language.
A long-format, hand-thrown York Handmade red-multi brick is used, with a dark red weather-struck mortar joint. The hand-thrown brick gives the building real character, with intricate brick detailing at key points both externally and internally to give a ‘solidly-crafted’ feel throughout the building. Window frames are a complementary metallic mid-bronze, with structural glass arched windows at ground floor level.
Sustainability is central to the building’s design. It is net zero carbon in operation of shared spaces, with BREEAM Excellent, NABERS 5 star, and EPC A ratings. Energy efficient technologies include electric heating powered by advanced heat pumps, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, rooftop solar panels, and a smart Building Management System. The concept for the facades evolved during the design process and numerous options were tested to take into account the ratio of glazing to solid areas in the context of thermal modelling, vent intake and extract requirements, structural efficiency, relationship to surrounding buildings and the Circle Square context, buildability, carbon credentials and aesthetics. The building floorplates are designed to be as open plan as possible, with an offset lift, stair and WC core to the southern side to maintain visibility across the entirety of the suite, optimise the best views out to the surrounding area, and minimise solar gain to the office suites.
Mechanical and electrical services are championed, and the project uses floor-by-floor mechanical heat recovery and ventilation, with intake and exhaust air taken from the interior to the exterior through perforated brick panels set across and integrated into the design of the entire building facade. This achieves numerous efficiencies; in operation, in materials (by reducing duct runs) and spatially (by reducing the space requirements for internal services risers). The design includes additional spare panels at each floor level; to provide ultimate flexibility for adaption time and time again through the life of the building, and as different occupiers with different needs come and go.
