Project story · Manchester, United Kingdom
A lantern on a Victorian street
In Manchester, Seven pairs a restrained stone frame with a tall, glowing base, so that an office building behaves like a good neighbour.
By byJOOM · Seven · Commercial and workplace
A building that is part of the street
Many office buildings are walls with doors in them. Seven is designed to be part of the street, not a wall beside it. It is an office and commercial building for the people who work, meet and pass by, and its ground floor is organised for the third group as much as for the first two.
A restrained stone frame
The upper floors are a restrained stone frame with deep reveals. The windows sit back in the thickness of the facade, so that shadow does the work that ornament might otherwise do. Pale stone and dark window frames give the building a grain, a rhythm of vertical lines that suits a street of older buildings.
A glazed, lit base
At the ground, tall glazing replaces the stone. The lobby and a café are visible from the pavement, and at night the base glows. The lit glass base is the most generous thing the building does. It gives people on the pavement light, life to look at and a sense that the street is occupied.
Reading as a lantern at night
In the evening pictures the whole building reads as a lantern: a dark stone frame above, a bright base below, and a glazed top storey that catches the last light. The idea is not complicated. It is stone where the building has to be solid and glass where it has to be open.
Stone, proportion and a generous street edge are qualities that do not go out of fashion.
Proportion that does not go out of fashion
Stone, proportion and a generous street edge are qualities that do not go out of fashion. The design relies on them rather than on any detail that will date. A restrained frame and a lit base are the same idea whether the street is old or new.
At home among Victorian neighbours
Seven sits on a street of Victorian buildings and does not try to look Victorian. It keeps their stone, adds a base that is friendlier to people on foot than theirs, and lets the difference be a quiet one.
This article describes design intention. The images are design visualisations, not photographs of a finished building. See the Disclaimers.