Mere Lane – Exhibition Board                   Bowes Street – Exhibition Board

New build housing at Bowes Street, Manchester

Mere Lane Health Centre, Anfield, Liverpool

MBLA’s proposed refurbishment of St Peter’s Church in Ancoats, Manchester for the Hallé Orchestra has received planning permission. The building will act as a rehearsal base and occasional performance venue for the renown Hallé Orchestra and a number of their ensembles and choirs. Tenders are currently being sought with construction expected to commence in the autumn of 2012. The facility will open in Spring 2013.

The £6m development is the twelfth new health centre opened by Liverpool Primary Care Trust since 2007 as they seek to deliver a wider range of health services closer to peoples homes. The site was formerly a stone quarry and more recently a children’s playground in an area of Liverpool enjoys an elevated position in the city and commands significant views down towards the port and over the Mersey to the Welsh hills.

The Neighbourhood centre accommodates the amalgamation of three GP practices, a dental suite, multi-functional training and library spaces as well as an independent pharmacy. The development also acts as a social venue for community engagement and extra-clinical activities.

MBLA’s scheme for Great Places Housing Group has just completed in Rotherham. On a steeply rising site close to the town centre the scheme contains 8 no 4 person/2 bed apartments and 12 no 3 person/2 bed apartments arranged in a linear manner so each apartment is serviced from a gallery access/amenity deck reached via a single core containing stairs and a lift. The scheme easily satisfies code 4 standards and is already 90% occupied.

MBLA have submitted a planning application for a 1231 bed student accommodation campus in Hull. Arranged in a series of six buildings the campus exploits the amenity of the existing dock location to take advantage of the vista across the Humber and will contribute to the active use of the pedestrian and cycle path along the edge of the estuary. The proposed development will provide a scheme which in terms of height, scale, massing and appearance will re-interpret in a contemporary manner the historic warehouse dockside architecture of Hull.

The campus will also include a convenience store, cafe space and gymnasium.

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.