Building on a Rich History
Manchester's Campfield Market in Castlefield has a rich history dating back to the early 19th century. Originally established as a hub for trading and commerce, the market has evolved over the years to become an integral part of the city’s cultural and architectural heritage.
Completed in 1878, the Lower Campfield Market Hall was designed as a ‘canopied’ open-sided market hall. It was built at Camp Field, which was already the location of popular markets and fairs and was close to a major railway goods yard—today the site of the Science and Industry Museum.
New Beginnings
Over the years it has changed with the times, from a City Exhibition Hall to military uses during wartime to housing exhibits as part of the Air & Space Hall of the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.
Following the closure of the Hall in 2021 a joint partnership between Manchester City Council and Allied London set about to bring the building back to life for a whole new generation. The ambition is to transform the space into an incubator for the city's up and coming creative and tech businesses.
Developing the Concept
Allied London got in touch with us to work with them to deliver a creative vision and design concept for the Grade II listed Upper and Lower Campfield buildings and Castlefield House, a 1960s office development that sits in between them. We love to write new chapters for classic heritage buildings and jumped at the chance to get involved in helping to shape its future.
Inspired by the rehabilitation and creative reuse of buildings in the docklands and industrial hinterlands of New York and the Netherlands we put pen to paper to flesh out a design concept for the trio of buildings under the working title of Air + Space + Cloud.
Initially the focus was on the larger Lower Campfield buiding (Air) to provide incubator and low-cost workspace for tech companies and start-ups. We introduced 5 core principles which informed design concept for the interior. On the ground floor we proposed modular studio spaces flanking each external wall. Each designed be configurable into larger or smaller units and feature 'garden- office' areas spilling out into the central atrium. The central atrium consists of a heavily planted 'green street', a meeting zone for casual encounters between businesses.
The proposal for the upper level extends the mezzanine out to accommodate a flexible, open plan co-working zone punctuated by a series of unique meeting pavilions creating a new spatial identity for the building.
The center of the cruciform plan is the social heart of the building, housing event space, supported by a range of on-site hospitality, including, café, bar, kitchen and lounge areas.
We designed and produced a newspaper and a brochure to communicate the concept narrative to the key project stakeholders, taking the development to planning pre-application stage. We collaborated with heritage specialists, Project 3 Architects who took our foundation ideas into further detailed design phases. The building is set to launch in 2025 under the legacy Campfield name.
