London studio Twelve Architects has revealed its plan to remodel the disused Castlefield Viaduct in Manchester right into an “inexperienced oasis” harking back to New York City’s High Line.
The design, which was knowledgeable by James Nook Discipline Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s New York City High Line, is a 330-meter lengthy linear park that may occupy a disused 130-year-old railway viaduct.
The studio labored with charity The National Trust to develop a design that marries the commercial heritage of the realm with a contemporary city park.
“We had been tasked to create ‘moments of pleasure’, which is a superb transient to have and that’s what now we have sought to attain using our early design concepts,” stated Twelve Architects founding director Matt Cartwright.
“We needed folks to expertise the construction in all its industrial glory and take a second to think about its previous and admire the sheer fantastic thing about the engineering,” he informed Dezeen.
Inbuilt 1892, the Castlefield Viaduct was constructed by the engineers of the Blackpool Tower and is now Grade II-listed.
It’s situated in Castlefield, an inner-city conservation space of Manchester which accommodates the positioning of the world’s first passenger railway and sections of the world’s first industrial canal.
The proposal will see the viaduct divided into three zones that purpose to take guests on a journey that spotlight the construction.
Guests will enter the viaduct at a welcome house, which can include meals vans, seating, and various planters.
The second zone goals to current the viaduct in its deserted. It’ll have minimal landscaping or architectural intervention to showcasing the construction of the viaduct.
The ultimate zone will double as an occasion house and an inexperienced backyard “oasis” that’s stuffed with crops and greenery, housed inside giant red-hued metal planters that hyperlink the design with its industrial heritage.
A plant-wrapped non-permanent construction was designed to stretch the width of the viaduct and will probably be used to host occasions.
A glazed wall on the rear of the construction will present guests with views throughout the remaining half of the viaduct.
“Our overarching idea was to create a ‘theatre of the house’,” defined Cartwright.
“Splitting the viaduct into three distinct zones, we created a green display gate, a residing wall that acts as a theatre curtain between zone 1 and a pair of, opening to disclose the key gardens behind.”
“We hope it should really feel like a green oasis, the place folks can lose themselves for a time, all of the whereas absorbing the wealthy historical past of the realm and connecting with nature,” Cartwright added.
“It is a spot folk will come to for espresso, for a stroll with household, for a group occasion.”
The studio defined it regarded to tasks similar to La Promenade Plantee and Le Viaduc des Arts in Paris in addition to The Excessive Line in New York when approaching the challenge.
“Whereas these tasks have offered us with useful new understanding and inspiration, for us this has at all times been about creating one thing very true to the realm,” stated Cartwright.
Earlier this 12 months, an extension of New York City’s High Line that will connect to Penn Station was revealed.
James Nook Discipline Operations additionally lately received a competition to convert a section of disused railway in Camden into the Camden Excessive Line.