Piccadilly Gardens Manchester Urban Development, Photo, England, Building Demolition, Landscape, Designer

Piccadilly Gardens Manchester : Tadao Ando Landscape

New Civic Architecture in northwest England, UK – design by EDAW + Tadao Ando Architect

24 Jul 2017

New Piccadilly Gardens Design

Date of previous renewal: 2002
New Design: Urban Edge
Original Design: Tadao Ando Architect

photo © Adrian Welch

The Japanese architect’s only building in the UK.

Demolition of Piccadilly Gardens Pavilion by Tadao Ando

Plans first mooted in November 2016 to demolish and replace architect Tadao Ando’s concrete pavilion at Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester appear to be progressing.

Pair of larger pavilions designed by Urban Edge:

image courtesy of architects

Manchester City Council outlined its ambitions to “refresh” Piccadilly Gardens, a green space in the city centre, in a report that will go before an executive committee last November.

The Japanese architect’s concrete pavilion will be replaced by larger glass and timber structure designed by Urban Edge:

aerial photograph © webbaviation

The outline plans for this large central square include:

– Removing the existing Pavilion building and feature wall and replacing them with two new Pavilion buildings linked by a covered area of new public space

– Improvements to the Gardens, including lighting, to deter anti-social behaviour and improve natural surveillance

– Creating extra seating throughout the Gardens for public use

– Introducing extra soft landscaping including new shrubs and plants

– Addressing damaged pavements and grass by raising the grassed areas and relaying pedestrian thoroughfares

– Bringing family-themed restaurants and a coffee outlet to the new Pavilion buildings

image courtesy of architects

14 Feb 2017

Piccadilly Gardens Pavilion Demolition

Tadao Ando Piccadilly Gardens Pavilion Demolition Proposal

photo © Adrian Welch

Manchester City Council give the initial go-ahead for plans to pull down Tadao Ando’s Piccadilly Gardens pavilion in Manchester – the Japanese architect’s only building in the UK

Last week the authority’s executive allowed Legal & General Investment Management Real Assets (L&G) to progress with proposals to flatten the controversial 14-year-old concrete structure and replace it with a new leisure-led scheme designed by Urban Edge Architecture.

Tadao Ando’s 130-metre-long curved concrete wall currently stretches across the area, shielding the green space from a transport interchange. On one side a cover shelters a coffee shop.

photo © Adrian Welch

21 Mar 2014
Greening the Piccadilly Gardens Wall by Tadao Ando

The Japanese architect behind Piccadilly Gardens’ concrete centrepiece says he would back plans to cover it in greenery.

Tadao Ando, an internationally-acclaimed architect, designed the grey concrete wall as part of a 2002 makeover of the public square.

photo © Adrian Welch

A campaign has been launched to ‘green over’ the pavilion by local people – who say its stark features are too bleak and depressing.

Responding to the suggestion, the Osaka-based architect said he would welcome the addition of grass, flowers, and leafy plants.

source: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/tadao-ando-architect-piccadilly-gardens-1766108

26 Nov 2008

Piccadilly Gardens

Redevelopment
2001-02

photo © webbaviation

Piccadilly Gardens Redevelopment

Park landscape + fountains
EDAW

Pavilion
Tadao Ando Architect

Piccadilly Gardens is a green space in Manchester city centre, England, situated at one end of Market Street (a busy shopping area) and on the edge of the Northern Quarter. Piccadilly runs eastwards from the end of Market Street/junction with Mosley Street, to a point where London Road begins at the junction with Ducie Street: to the south of this are the gardens and paved areas. The area was reconfigured in 2002 with a new water feature and concrete pavilion by noted Japanese architect Tadao Ando.

Manchester building photos © Adrian Welch, Apr 2010:

Before 1755: The area was pits called the Daub Holes. They filled with water. The Lord of the Manor donated the site and the pits were replaced by a fine ornamental pond.
1755: The Manchester Royal Infirmary was built there; the street it stood on was then called Lever’s Row, which continued south-east as Piccadilly.
1763: Manchester Royal Lunatic Asylum was built next to the Manchester Royal Infirmary.
1849: The lunatic asylum was moved to Cheadle and is now Cheadle Royal Hospital.
1910: The Manchester Royal Infirmary moved to its current site on Oxford Road, due to fear of difficulty evacuating in narrow streets in case of fire.
1914: By then the infirmary had been fully removed from the site, and after several years in which the City Council tried to decide how to develop the site, it ended up being left and made into the largest open green space in the city centre. The Manchester Public Free Library Reference Department was housed on the site for a number of years before the move to Manchester Central Library. The lowered area (as before 2000) of the gardens arose from the hospital’s basement.
Source: wikipedia