Piccadilly Basin home to city centre's first ‘living roof’

Manchester City Council’s plans to become the ‘greenest city in Britain’ is looking skywards with the recent unveiling of the first ‘living roof in Manchester City Centre.

The sensitively constructed 'brown' roof of the 5 storey BDP Architects, Engineers and Designers new office, currently under construction at Piccadilly Basin, will be the landing pad for two of the city's newest arrivals of black redstart birds.

The council has introduced a series of environmental standards in the Guide to Development in Manchester and is encouraging developers to look at innovative ways to meet them in new and existing buildings. Living roofs are part of the potential response in meeting the biodiversity and water management standards as well as proving valuable green amenity space for residents and workers alike.

Councillor Neil Swannick, Executive Member for Environment, Manchester City Council, said: "The challenge of adapting to the effects of climate change in Manchester is going to be two-fold, particularly in the city centre: how do we keep people and buildings at a comfortable temperature without using energy intensive heating and ventilation systems, and how are we going to reduce the potential risk of flooding from the extra rainfall run-off? Add in the need to protect and enhance the city's biodiversity and improve air quality, and living roofs provide the perfect answer.

"I'm delighted to see our development community respond to these challenges and look forward to working together closely in the future as we move climate change adaptability and mitigation up the agenda for the built environment."

Richard Lewis, Development Director for Town Centre Securities says; "In line with Town Centre Securities' biodiversity policy, a full ecological study of Piccadilly Basin has been carried out. The redstart birds are a rare species with only around 100 breeding pairs in the UK, so when we found out there was a population on our doorstep we wanted to play our part in protecting and enhancing their population. We are delighted to have found like-minded tenants in BDP who share our commitment to the green agenda and the brown roof being constructed on the BDP headquarters building will be the first of its kind in the City Centre.

"It is one of the many features designed into Piccadilly Basin demonstrating Town Centre Securities' dedication to providing a sustainable, environmentally friendly development. We also aspire to only use materials which have an A rating in the BRE's Green Guide to Specification and have undertaken extensive design work on our new residential element to ensure the buildings would at least gain an EcoHomes rating of very good. We are committed to helping the city reach its aim to become the greenest in Britain."

The recent unveiling of the black redstart biodiversity action plan for Greater Manchester aims for 50 brown roofs specifically for these rare birds to be installed across the county in the next 5 years.

Outside of the city centre, the new properties on Guest Street in New Islington already have green roofs installed, the roof on Unicorn Grocery in Chorlton was unveiled last month and the Pavilion in Piccadilly Gardens is also set to have a green roof installed next year as part of the Gardens improvement works. The Council's planners have now approved 24 living roof proposals, including 6 major schemes in and around the City Centre.

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