Campus opens for Manchester Metropolitan University

Manchester Metropolitan University's new state-of-the-art campus has just opened.

As landscape architects for the project, Gillespies has established a new landscape infrastructure that delivers an attractive and positive educational environment for students and staff. The project has also been designed to incorporate the highest sustainable design standards.

The 15 acre Birley Campus located in Manchester's Hulme also completes the regeneration of this district once defined by economic decline. The campus also marks the completion of a GBP300 million investment programme in Manchester. Construction began on the main academic building in September 2012 and finished earlier this year.

It houses 6,000 students and 500 staff opposite the Hulme Arch gateway, and boasts landscaped public gardens, student accommodation and sports and community facilities.

Warren Chapman, an Associate based in Gillespies' Manchester office who led the landscape design team says:

"We worked hard to create an open and inviting public realm that strengthened links with the local community, accommodating existing desire lines and providing space for a community orchard. 

A wetland habitat takes surface water from the adjacent car park with a reed bed to help purify the run-off and adjacent pond to attract wildlife.

A "sensory" garden has been located close to the dining area and is already being used to provide fresh herbs for the kitchen!"

MMU Vice-Chancellor John Brooks said: "This is a massive investment in Hulme, not only in its physical environment but via, many university projects with the community which aim to improve health and wellbeing, raise educational aspiration and attainment and empower people at the grass-roots.

"We hope that the uniting force of education will make Birley a focal point for the community and redefine what a university can achieve with the people who live around it."