Materiality and heritage
Hulme, Manchester's reputation of red bricks commenced with the Bentley House estates. The Bentley House Estate in Hulme comprises 6 blocks of red-brick, art deco, flats bounded by Hulme street, Princess road, Clarendon street and Jackson crescent. Truly one of the oldest homes of Hulme consisting of the Red brick culture of it's area.
The Bentley House Estate
The Hulme Crescents dominated the skyline of Hulme for nearly two decades. The plan described the existing housing stock in areas like Hulme as, “Endless rows of grimy houses: no gardens, no parks, no community buildings, no hope.”
"Bentley House estate consists of three parallel streets three storey high walk-up flats.
They were purpose built in the late 1940s in an art deco style, at a time when all flats still had open fires, shared communal laundrys in the basement (designed as bomb shelters we believe). Our bathrooms are tiny, designed at a time when even having an indoor bathroom was rare, and our kitchens were not designed to accommodate any mod cons, but we are very lucky in many other ways. All flats either have a decent sized balcony, or a garden, and we also have an awful lot of communal green space."
'The Mancunian Red'
Facade
studies
Also I looked at different materials that i can perhaps integrate in order to create a soft touch to the landscape without moving away from the red brick culture of Hulme.
By experimenting with the form of the inclined roofs and the massing that allows to obtain maximum daylight, we can follow the same concept through the facade study and how we can enhance that achievement without deforming the fluidity within the design throughout the whole project.
Through this study i managed to solve a couple of issues whilst designing a smooth transition for the facade:
> By keeping the windows narrow, privacy of the spaces will be kept constant thoughout the floors.
> Sliding timber panels on south facing facaed to reduce heat gains as well maintain privacy when needed
>By Pushing the window inside the wall a little, we can achieve a lower heat gain also, as the sun rays will bounce off the sides before entering the building.
