Inspired by the multi-layered historical narrative, ‘Castlefield in the Sky’ viaduct, brings to life an iconic part of Manchester, via a 1km stretch of green corridor – now a vibrant new home for both people and wildlife to thrive in.
Strategy
The 1893 Castlefield Viaduct is a 330m long, beautiful Grade II listed historic structure at the heart of Manchester. The National Trust, working with the community and Historic Railway Estate, developed a temporary sky park on the deck of the viaduct which was opened to the public in July 2022. A year on, they invited a short-list of Landscape Architects to design a new uninterrupted, elevated green corridor spanning 1 km along from Deansgate tram stop to Pomona Island. The corridor was to act as an active travel route, a place for people to stop and dwell as an iconic destination and a community space.
The vision for our competition entry was based on the observation that people and nature have thrived here before. The viaduct has layers of rich historical narrative with an abundance of built industrial heritage on show throughout the conservation area.
Specificity
We proposed to balance past narratives with future narratives, resurrecting the ethos of Manchester’s lost botanical and pleasure gardens. Built to improve the health and wellbeing of city centre residents back in the 19th century, and heralded as the countryside without the need for a train journey. These gardens were the original accessible green lungs in the world’s first industrial city. There is an interesting circular story here but our competition design adds plenty of contemporary twists, iconic new additions, innovative layers of climate conscious and resilient horticulture and purposeful programme and uses to ensure people will want to visit again and again.
Our 6 design strategies were:
- A green corridor for people and wildlife
- Composition of 10 episodes across the viaduct
- Clear access points, movement routes and places to rest
- Punctuating the viaduct with architectural interventions
- Celebrating the heritage of the viaduct
- Programmed to provide activity throughout the day
Sustainability
All too often planting design becomes a collage of block planting, where different species are arranged in neat and tidy groups, rather than integrated as they would be in nature.
For much of the Castlefield Viaduct, our approach to planting design aims to create sequences of plant communities similar to that which is found in nature.
Creating connected plant communities, where each individual plant thrives, is the first step to ensuring a sustainable approach to planting. Another key aspect of our planting approach is to consider how species will adapt to more extreme weather as a result of climate change. Ensuring plants are resilient to drought periods in particular will inform our plant selection whilst also reducing the requirement for high maintenance watering regimes.
Team
