British architect Will Alsop of Alsop Architects has completed a residential building called Chips in Manchester.
The eight-storey building, for developer Urban Splash, was conceived as “three fat chips stacked on top of each other.”
Each “chip” is covered in text referring to the area’s history.
The building forms part of Alsop’s urban plan for the New Islington area of Manchester and contains 142 one, two and three bedroom apartments.
Above photographs by Christian Richters.
Here’s some more information from Urban Splash:
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WILL ALSOP’S ‘CHIPS’ BUILDING COMPLETES IN NEW ISLINGTON, MANCHESTER
THREE FAT CHIPS STACKED ON TOP OF EACH OTHER.
A RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT LIKE NO OTHER.
Quirky, bold and robust, ‘Chips’ forms the first major development for the Alsop-designed masterplan for New Islington in Manchester. 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, modeled 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 was designed by Will Alsop whose building was inspired by three fat chips piled on top of one another. The ‘Chips’ building comprises three equal-height, long, thin 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 faced with a cladding covered in newspaper print with 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, integration into the urban landscape and the provision of inspirational and sensational apartment units. 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. It marks another significant milestone for New Islington, which will become even more of a community once the residents of Chips move into their apartments in 2009.
CLIENT
Urban Splash Ltd
ARCHITECT
Alsop Architects:
Will Alsop, Duncan Macaulay, Edward Norman, Caroline Koo, Bonny Yu
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
Martin Stockley Associates
M&E CONSULTANT
Quartzelec and Fulcrum
QUANTITY SURVEYOR
Simon Fenton Partnership
CDM CO-ORDINATOR
Rawlings Consultancy Services Ltd
LANDSCAPE DESIGN
Grant Associates
LIGHTING CONSULTANT
Pinniger & Partners
ACCESS AND ACOUSTIC CONSULTANT
Buro Happold
MAIN CONTRACTOR
Urban Splash Build
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Posted by Rachel Blunstone
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:16 am
“Each “chip” is covered in text referring to the area’s history.”
that’s what i call contextual…
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:39 am
Alright, now that’s a nice waterfront facade. What a cool game played with those three extended blocks.
June 2nd, 2009 at 5:54 am
It looks like someone let interior designers loose on the exterior
They could have at least used helvetica….
June 2nd, 2009 at 10:59 am
I live next to this building, and whilst I don’t mind the shape, I really dislike the writing on it and I think the cladding looks cheap, patchy, incomplete and a little like it has just been cobbled together.
Some of the ideas for the regeneration of this area are brilliant, and I am really looking forward to seeing the area come to life again, but I think this particular building will look shoddy and dated too soon.
I would be interested to see how the inside looks though. Particularly as from the outside the windows appear to be pretty small and I would be interested to see how much natural light the flats get.
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Hello MVRDV
June 2nd, 2009 at 4:14 pm
While I like the concept of form, it’s clever and intriguing anyway, I cannot help but think that this project will be a net minus for the urban landscape. And although I’ve never been to Manchester, I echo Gemma’s concern. What’s clever today, can often be a tired joke tomorrow, and if the materials are cheap, then exponentially so.
+ for concept – - for articulation
June 2nd, 2009 at 4:45 pm
How did they get this passed UK planning? Did they kill all the NIMBYS?
Impressive
June 2nd, 2009 at 5:52 pm
super graphic? ekkkkkkk.
June 2nd, 2009 at 6:21 pm
The general form of three stacked blocks is intriguing. The addition of typography competes too much with the seemingly random placement of windows. It begins to get cluttered and confusing and takes away from the interesting architectural elements.
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:43 pm
sorry,
this project makes my eyes sore.
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:26 am
I saw this in the Architects Journal with interiors and floor plans. How come tenants in manchester don’t deserve outdoor space? Less than half the apartments seem to have balconies and those that there are barely fit a chair on. I’ve never come across a local authority that’s ok with that before, but then, for starchitects the rules are different aren’t they……
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:58 am
Actually, the entire New Islington masterplan is mady by alsop architects – and defenitely worth taking a look at
even when it is just for the rendering technique
if the rest of the area will look like those renderings, this building would end up being pretty normal.
June 3rd, 2009 at 2:00 pm
I think it is a quite interesting project…These three horinzontals are very succesfull in terms of their controlled randomness and urban presence….The text is maybe a bit on top..but in general for me it is a very good
June 3rd, 2009 at 2:23 pm
In repsonse to JKL, don’t blame it on the interior designers. Perhaps some interior designers should have designed it, instead of architects!
At least then we might have ended up with something that was user centered, experience driven and more considered in its appearence.
You don’t often see the architects wanting to live in the large scale ‘architectural gestures’ that they dream up. Instead, they often choose a nice Georgian house carefully remodelled and rennovated a good interior designer.
June 4th, 2009 at 12:58 am
They forgot to add the shopping trolley and white lightning bottles to the canal renders…
June 4th, 2009 at 1:49 am
I actually kind of like it.
On an unrelated note…
Is it just me or do the three stacks look like they are engaging in some freaky architectural “love fest”….?
June 4th, 2009 at 4:55 am
Come on Alsop where’s the Blob?
June 4th, 2009 at 11:05 am
yuk! what was the inspiration for the colour palette – smarties?
June 4th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
I have always had a weak spot for chips!
June 5th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Fatigued, it isn’t just you, the three stacks do look like ‘they are engaging in some freaky architectural “love fest”…’ lol.
Lovely movement feelings with stagnant structural lines and the different shaped windows, there is definitely some youthful free spiritedness involved….but not so much innocence…
personally I liked it up till the point I realized it’s apartments for human residents presumably…
It looks like it could be a great studio space to work in…but to live in… I would not, I’ve lived through a window cut into a texty billboard facade before while poor in manhattan and it felt silly, I moved to a brown stone in park slope & lived happily ever after for awhile.
June 6th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
“The addition of typography competes too much with the seemingly random placement of windows. It begins to get cluttered and confusing and takes away from the interesting architectural elements.” – unlikelymoose
No it doesn’t. You’re just easily confused.
June 8th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Looks interesting. Would love to see its context wether it fits with its neighbours or is overbearing which Isuspect will the case in this development.
They could have go easy bwith the colours on the eye.
June 8th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
sorry for the typo errors; I suspect it will stick out like a sour thumb in its context. A better use of colours would go along way to help integrate it into its context despite its “conundrum” of windows!
June 13th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
With respect to the sales brochure: where is ‘the best chip shop in town?’
June 27th, 2009 at 8:15 am
mind you, i like it.
July 24th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
I think Will Alsop is extremely talented. That is one of the reasons this building exists and why we are talking about it, for better or worse.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:02 am
I’ve just agreed a lease on a two bed apartment at chips. Moving in in two weeks and can’t wait. When I first saw the building I was unsure, and thought it was a bit garish but I love it now! Love the lettering idea too – they spell out the names of local rivers and canals. I think its a cool idea and the inside of the building is great, the apartments are really quite big and finished to a high spec. There are floor to ceiling windows everywhere and the apartments feel very light and spacious. The whole place just feels really modern and funky. It seems to have a ‘young’ vibe but that suits me just fine! Trust me its very deceiving from the outside!