Urban oasis at Lowry House

A new urban oasis will be created at Manchester’s Lowry House as part of Bruntwood Works’ £50m Pioneer refurbishment programme.

Plans have been submitted to transform the city centre building, using biophilia throughout to bring nature into the heart of the space.

The refurbishment which is due to begin in early 2020, subject to planning approval, will increase the number of flexible workspace desks by more than a third, while an additional 5 meeting rooms will be added taking the total to 12.

Located on Marble Street, just off King Street, 16-storey Lowry House is set to have green spaces at its core, with external living walls made of hundreds of individual plants and a cascading interior garden taking centre stage.

Changes to the ground floor will include a new independent café; hotdesk and coworking areas; lounge space; private work and phone booths, while bleacher seating will be installed to create a new event space for up to 50.

Further stand-out features at Lowry House will include the basement being transformed with sleep pods, a quiet study area, cinema room, fitness studio complemented by existing shower and changing facilities, and space to host pop-up events.

Ciara Keeling, CEO of Bruntwood Works, said: “Lowry House is being transformed to offer the ultimate customer experience. We want to provide a truly uplifting workspace environment, one that enhances mental and physical wellbeing by bringing the outside in and offering a host of amenities to support a healthy work/life balance and boost creativity.

“The design concept itself is inspired by the city landscape of today and all of its inhabitants. It has been developed to celebrate the energy, colour and vibrancy of working and living in Manchester.”

The project is part of Bruntwood Works’ Pioneer programme, a multi-million pound customer-focused building transformation scheme. It will reinvent a number of buildings owned by the inspirational workspace specialist across the North and Midlands including recently announced Blackfriars House and 111 Piccadilly, both in Manchester city centre.

And, as a Pioneer building, Lowry House will be home to Bruntwood Works’ full mix of products, including meeting rooms, co-working spaces, serviced offices and larger private workspaces.

Focused on providing innovative environments with ‘wow factor’, the programme centres on enhancing six key themes across its buildings, from technology and sustainability to biophilia, wellbeing, amenity and art.

But Lowry House will be green in more ways than one and, as with all Bruntwood Works’ buildings undergoing refurbishment, a smart building management system will be embedded into its redesign to monitor the building’s carbon footprint and consumption to help support energy efficiency.

Reverse vending machines that offer rewards to encourage recycling are also being incorporated into the building layout. This will support Bruntwood’s recent pledge to the Green Building Council’s Net Zero Carbon Commitment to make new buildings net zero carbon emitting by 2030 and old buildings the same by 2050.

Ciara added: “Growing with our customers as they expand and develop is at the heart of what we do, and Lowry House’s transformation programme will allow us to offer high growth businesses a place to call home throughout their journey.

“The new shared spaces encourage a sense of community and facilitate collaborative working between like-minded businesses and individuals – something we’re extremely passionate about.

“Lowry House represents the latest evolution of our award-winning workspace approach and we look forward to pushing the boundaries further as we roll-out our Pioneer programme in the months to come.”

Bruntwood Works creates, owns and manages inspiring workspaces across the North and Midlands. As well as stand-out spaces, technology and amenities, it offers specialist business support and access to a unique network of over 55,000 Bruntwood customers.