Gorton Monastery, Manchester, England, UK

Role: Bruce Edgar - Design Architect, Heritage Advisor and Senior Urban Designer. (2007)

Company: Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment, London

Project Description: The project was an exercise of improving the design and quality of a medium (69 dwellings) sized urban infill project in part of Manchester's urban surrounds. It was adjacent to a significant mid-19th century church designed by Pugin the Younger. It involved leading a small Enquiry by Design Workshop, which lead to the creation of an alternative and more appropriate urban configuration that related to its historic setting and community. This process involved working closely to re-educate and training a modern architect to start again his design approach and look at urban design from a sustainable approach using new urbanist principles. The result was very successful and the architect applied the lessons learnt to other projects which were subsequently approved after hitting problems with the statutory planners in regards to quality of design.