May 29th, 2009 | By: 
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Chips – Alsop Architects
Chips a residential building in Manchester, by british architect Will Alsop, is nearing completion. Three fat chips stacked on top of each other, it is a residential development like no other. The building forms the first part of the Alsop-designed New Islington Masterplan, an area east of Manchester city centre.
From Alsop Architects
Standing at the centre of Manchester’s almost empty New Islington site, Alsop Architects’ Chips carries a great weight of expectation, writes Rowan Moore.
The site for Chips forms part of the New Islington Strategic framework area to the North East of Manchester City centre. The design aspires to provide a mix of living and studio (originally defined as live/work) units with a destination venue restaurant within a single project.
As the first building to be completed on the New Islington masterplan, Chips will set the standard for future development. Based on a brownfield site, the project has been assessed as achieving and Eco-Homes ‘Excellent’ rating. It encorporates up to the minute CHP technology and a high-performance building envelope to achieve these criteria.
A flexible flat slab in-situ concrete frame has been optimised to provide maximum performance, while delivering a cost-efficient solution. Elements of the apartment internal fit-out, including bathroom pods, have been prefabricated to ensure quality control and delivery to a tight time scale.
The project strives to define a ‘quality of living’ statement by combining outstanding design with technological innovation while embracing key concepts of sustainability; integration into the urban landscape and the provision of inspirational and sensational apartment units.
