Project: Swan Street House, Manchester
Client: Ridgeback Group
Main Contractor: RG Group
Installer: Stoneguard
Architect: SimpsonHaugh
Product: AlivaBrickM
The brief
Swan Street House represents luxurious city living at its finest, in a statement location on a main arterial route into the city and also neighbouring Manchester’s artisanal Northern Quarter. Swan Street House features 385 apartments across a 31 storey, 13 storey and 5 storey towers, with the tallest boasting magnificent views across the city of Manchester and beyond.
It is integrated real estate investor, developer and operator Ridgeback Group’s, a UK focussed business with over £1.5 billion of assets under management.
This flagship Ridgeback Group development includes a host of communal amenities, from a cinema room to a podcast suite, private dining suites, Pilates and wellbeing rooms, communal lounge areas and outside terraces.
Aliva UK has designed and supplied 10,000sqm of AlivaBrick for Swan Street House in a 15mm slip in a Manchester Smooth Red colourway, a choice that complements the city’s existing architectural style and industrial heritage paying equal homage to the cotton industry legacy of the 19th Century, when the city was nicknamed ‘Cottonopolis’.
The system has A1 fire rating and Kiwa UK certification. It has been developed to ensure the highest fire classification has been achieved based on testing to standard EN 13501-1:2019.
Aliva UK is proud to have provided the customised External Wall Insulation clay brick slip facade system with impressive chamfer detailing to create architectural flair with a brickwork aesthetic utilising Modern Methods of Construction (MMC).
A graceful brick slip system
The graceful elegance of the AlivaBrick facade complements the character of Swan Street House and with its 31 storey tower, its place on the Manchester skyline, alongside some of the city’s notable tall buildings and the distinct architecture of the NOMA district and One Angel Square.
A fully customised solution, the AlivaBrick system can be installed without height restriction, which made it the optimum facade solution given the tallest height of the development.
The architect on the project was SimpsonHaugh. Aliva’s AlivaBrick system met the design brief, client and main contractor’s budget aspiration.
The AlivaBrick slip system delivered a traditional brickwork aesthetic that pays tribute to Manchester’s ‘Cottonopolis’ mill heritage while also bringing forward points of subtle chamfer detailing on windows and the parapets to create modernity and style for this flagship, luxurious Build to Rent development.
A contemporary facade for Northern Quarter’s independent buzz
The Manchester Smooth Red brick slip tone and texture was a perfect choice for this flagship Mancunian development, one that neighbours the independent character of today’s buzzing Northern Quarter and pays equal homage to the cotton industry legacy of the 19th Century and ‘Cottonopolis’ heritage point.
The AlivaBrick system on Swan Street House evokes respect for the past but with elements of subtle flair, with window detailing across the project with chamfering at 90°. Not only does this create detailing that carries the eye up the height of the building towards the skyline, it creates a wider ‘aperture’ from the windows for the residents to enjoy their panoramic views of the city.
AlivaBrick has also created 90°chamfer detailing at the parapets of the building’s towers that serve to evoke the heritage of Manchester mill building design and nodding at the crown of this new development to the city’s cotton era that helped put it on the industrial map.
MMC: External Wall Insulation systems are fabric-first solutions and at the forefront of MMC. Given 45% of the heat in a building is lost through its walls, EWI is a must for any energy-conscious new build project, improving thermal values, reducing energy consumption for the betterment of the planet and residents’ energy bills in turn. MMC also brings greater agility to a project, including faster construction times, improved quality control, cost savings, and sustainability.
U-Values: The AlivaBrick slip system was a complement to Swan Street House’s sustainability credentials, with a U-Value achieved of 0.14W/m2k.
Sustainability: The AlivaBrick system reduced material and weight on the project plus brick slip production requires approximately 85% less energy than conventional brick production, adding to the NZC contribution.
What the client said:
“Swan Street House is a flagship development for Ridgeback. Located in the heart of Manchester and on an arterial route into the city, we wanted to create a statement Build to Rent development with an aesthetic that was stylish yet sympathetic to the existing built environment and architecture.
Aliva UK’s EWI and brick slip system in a Smooth Manchester Red colourway was the perfect facade solution, which served two pivotal functions. Firstly the tone and texture of the slip system looks perfectly at home against the city horizon and as part of the Mancunian skyline. It created a traditional red brick look synonymous with the heritage of Northern city architecture but with detailing and points of flair coming through with a chamfered effect to the windows and detailing on the parapet that takes the eye to the sky.
Secondly, the External Wall Insulation system positively contributes to Swan Street House’s thermal values which means our development’s sustainability build benefits are equally strong, reflecting our commitment to the Net Zero Carbon agenda in turn.
Together, these facade key points have created a destination development in Manchester’s Northern Quarter that has aesthetic appeal complemented by our Build to Rent market stand-out quality and flagship features that have created city centre living at its finest.”
Seamus Keane
Development Director, Ridgeback Group
Category: EWI
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