Chips, New Islington

Completion: 2009

Size: 16,200 m2

Awards: 2010 RIBA Regional Award / 2009 Premier

Guarantee Excellence Awards - Development of the Year

Alsop Architects

New Islington, Manchester’s Millennium Community, is situated between the Ashton and Rochdale canals on the Northern edge of Manchester City Centre.

Launched in 2002, Alsop’s strategic framework for New Islington, lays out an exceptional place, modelled around new canal arms and an inspiring landscape.

Commissioned by Urban Splash in 2002, Chips presents the first new apartments for sale in New Islington and was inspired by three fat chips piled on top of one another. The Chips building comprises three equal height, long, narrow, new build masses (Chips) approximately 100m long by 14m wide stacked and staggered upon one another creating an elevated ground floor and eight levels comprising. 142 one-, two- and three bedroom apartments.

The building is clad in a composite wall covered with newspaper print - text that echoes the industrial heritage of the Ancoats area. The design provides a mix of living and studio units and commercial space within a single project. The project defines a quality of living by combining outstanding design with technological innovation while embracing key concepts of sustainability, and integration into the urban landscape.

The building’s apartment types range from studio spaces to three bed apartments. There is also a variety of differing external balconies. The apartments are planned internally around a central ‘pod’ unit, housing the bathroom and kitchen areas. The apartments can be open plan or sub-divided by the use of large folding screens.

The scheme achieves a BREEAM Eco-Homes Excellent rating, conforms to the Manchester Methodist Housing Trust scheme’s stringent development standards and also meets the Sustainability guidelines as set out by the UK Homes and Communities agency as a part of the ‘millennium community’ programme.