MBLA Architects + Urbanists have obtained planning permission and listed building consent for the extension and renewal of visitor facilities at Wightwick Manor near Wolverhampton.

A late Victorian manor house, built in the ‘Old English’ style by local industrialist Theodore Mander, Wightwick Manor is perhaps the best surviving example of a home furnished under the influence of the Arts & Crafts Movement. The rich interiors of the house feature many original wallpapers, fabrics and furnishings by William Morris, artwork by Rossetti and Burne-Jones, glass by Charles Kempe and ceramics by William de Morgan.

The house sits in 7 hectares (17 acres) of attractive Arts & Crafts gardens, designed by Thomas Mawson, which are Grade II listed in their own right.

The works include a new cafe and kitchen within listed structures together with welfare facilities for the gardens which involved extensive consultation with English Heritage. Work on site will commence in February 2012.

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Langworthy Road Housing by MBLA Architects + Urbanists

MBLA’s housing scheme at Langworthy Road has been awarded full planning permission. The scheme consists of nine three bedroomed houses together with a single four bedroom house on a small but prominent sloping site in Salford all to code level 3. Designed for Great Places Housing Group the development will offer affordable family housing continuing the regeneration in this part of Salford.

Construction will start in March 2012.

Avondale Manor Health Centre by MBLA Architects + Urbanists

Manchester based architects MBLA Architects + Urbanists have received planning approval for a new Health Centre in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. Sited on Ashgate Road, on the edge of the town centre conservation area, the new facility will be the new home for the Avondale GP surgery and the Little Acorns day nursery. The centre will also provide a base for a range of health related organisations complimenting the GP practice and a new pharmacy.

Demolition of the existing Manor College buildings has already commenced and construction of the main building will commence in spring 2012 following the selection of a main contractor.

The new £8m Fiveways Centre in Childwall is now formally open to the public. The new centre contains a new civic library, sixth form teaching suite for the Childwall Sports College and Health and Wellbeing facilities for the Oak Vale and Valley Road GP practices as well as a range of PCT led community based services. The development is the seventh new building completed by MBLA Architects + Urbanists for developer Liverpool and Sefton Health Partnerships since 2004.

Gideon Ben-Tovim, Chair of Liverpool PCT and Liverpool Wavertree MP Luciana Berger"

Gideon Ben-Tovim, chairman of Liverpool Primary Care Trust, said: “This is an extremely exciting and innovative scheme, which will drive health and wellbeing improvement in Childwall and the surrounding communities.”

MBLA have just received ISO 14001:2004 certification to acknowledge that the practices Environmental Management System has been approved by Lloyds Register Quality Assurance for the provision of architectural and masterplanning services.

Steve Bradshaw, MBLA Associate, said; ”This certification recognises MBLA’s commitment and ability to deliver leading environmental standards in our designs underpinned by a strong environmental management ethos and sustainable in-house procedures”.

Please see our sustainability section for more information – CLICK HERE

We can offer sustainability advice across all building sectors including Code for Sustainable Homes Assessment and Lifetime Homes Assessment.

MBLA’s new website launched on 20th May 2011. 

Lovingly created by top digital web agency Cahoona, the site is formatted to dynamically respond to different viewing platforms; be it a standard monitor, smartphone or tablet.  The new website showcases a selection of MBLA’s completed and current work, including expanded sections on the practices urbanism projects.  Please visit the contact page if you want to sign up to our mailing list.

This was swiftly followed by recognition at the Manchester Society of Architects annual awards 2011 where the scheme was commended in the Conservation/Re-use catergory.

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Ian Beaumont & Steve Wall (4th & 5th from right) receive the award alongside client and contractor colleagues

Sited on an elevated plot in Garston the new Health Centre replaced a much loved Edwardian Hospital.  Strong geometric forms clad in stainless steel combine with a dramatic welcoming entrance carved into the sandstone create a new landmark.  A Café and pharmacy animate the street frontage at lower ground level.  Fragments of the demolished hospital offer references to the history of the site.  A large courtyard provides the inner focal point housing a ‘Tropical Garden’ inspired by the birth of tropical medicine in Liverpool.  The building has been designed to achieve BREEAM Healthcare ‘Excellent’.  The design includes renewable energy technology that supplies 44% of the buildings energy demand via solar thermal collectors and ground source heat pumps which supply both heating and cooling.  This technology will reduce the anticipated building’s carbon emissions by 15%.

Click the following to download case study describing the approach to reducing CO2. > Reducing CO2 Emissions

The flagship South Liverpool NHS Treatment Centre opens in Garston.

MBLA are the architects for the 5,400sqm Treatment Centre which is the major component of the tranche 3 projects for Liverpool & Sefton LIFT. The building is the first of three planned Neighbourhood Treatment Centres in Liverpool in response to the NHS agenda to offer secondary health services locally outside of hospitals.  The new development replaces the former Sir Alfred Jones Memorial Hospital in Garston, a well known landmark in the community and offers modern state of the art health facility.  Unlike it’s predecessor, the new proposals aim to overcome the constraints of its elevated site allowing direct connections into the street and offering a far more accessible and welcoming building.

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Construction has commenced on the new Mere Lane Neighbourhood Centre with the opening scheduled for May 2012.

The proposed new neighbourhood centre is a level 1 health centre approximating of 2150m2 with 50 car parking spaces.  The site was formerly a stone quarry and more recently a children’s playground in an area of Liverpool which enjoys an elevated position in the city and commands significant views down towards the port and over the Mersey to the Welsh hills.

The centre will accommodate the amalgamation of three GP practices, a dental suite, multi-functional training and library spaces as well as an independent pharmacy.  The development will act as a social venue for community engagement and extra-clinical activities. The building will become a focal point of this new developing part of Anfield.