Brunswick at 10: Warren Chapman

As part of our 10th anniversary celebration at Brunswick, we spent last year celebrating the residents of Brunswick. As our celebrations continue, we have turned the camera to the design team who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes on the project.

This interview comes from Warren Chapman, a landscape architect and associate at Gillespies who has worked on the project since its conception.

What did your work at Brunswick involve – and how did this change and evolve over the decade?

My work at Brunswick started before I even worked at Gillespies. I’d previously worked at Manchester City Council on the project and got to carry the work over. Over the decade, this has involved creating green spaces across Brunswick – which although it sounds self-explanatory, can be anything from parks to residential gardens to street tree planting. We wanted to create consistency across the outdoor spaces, even with the work spanning ten years. So we created a palette of materials to use across the whole estate. There are areas of paving and benches that look identical but were installed six or seven years apart.

Our work didn’t really evolve too much over the decade in the traditional sense. The design approach from ten years ago still holds up today. Our design for the seating for example was fairly innovative at the time. We had formal seating and benches but we also introduced sit-on edges for informal seating that are now common across Manchester, but were fairly new at the time. Having these edges reflected across Manchester has ensured Brunswick is cohesive with the rest of the city.

A big part of the work was to make sure the green spaces in Brunswick are all intentionally connected in some way. The ‘boulevard’ we created acts as a diagonal walkway through Brunswick that connects with the city centre. Even the green islands were placed intentionally to waymark the path to the park along this walking route.

How do green spaces create a sense of place and community?

Green spaces can be transformative for a neighbourhood. Especially in an inner-city or urban area where access to nature is not always easy. In Brunswick, we saw this ripple effect where, as more green spaces were introduced, it encouraged residents to care more about their own spaces. It added a real sense of pride and ownership for the residents, especially when we sectioned off the front gardens. It was previously just land in front of the houses with no clear boundaries or sections but once we introduced fencing, it started to feel more like private property. Now, the gardens at Brunswick are well looked after – people are taking care of their spaces.

Another part of our thinking behind creating green spaces was the use of evergreen trees dotted around the neighbourhood. We didn’t want the green spaces to just be green for half the year.

What was the idea behind the ‘city-sized’ allotments?

The area where the allotments are was initially meant to be for housing. However, it was marked out as an area that would be a flood risk so nothing could be built there. Which was great for us because it was the perfect size for allotments.

Normally, allotments are twice the size of the plots we put in but we wanted to make the most out of the space and make them manageable for the residents. So, there are allotment plots and a shed for residents to use as a communal space. There are also raised allotment beds to provide a bit of an accessible growing space – again, this was fairly innovative when it was designed ten years ago.

The allotment ownership is prioritised for those living in flats to give them a chance to be out and about in a green space that’s their own, as they don’t have gardens. Residents all manage the allotments themselves and we decided to use green fencing instead of walls to they’d be open and visible from the street. Not everyone loved that idea – some worried it’d look scruffy – but we felt that even if they were ‘scruffy’, it offers a bit of a wild natural area in the neighbourhood. And we pushed to keep them open deliberately too – we want people to feel connected to the allotments rather than shutting them away. We want them to feel proud of the work they’ve put in and get to show it off.

The orchard across the street adds another layer to that. Anyone can harvest the fruit from the trees and there are herb beds for residents to help maintain. It’s simple but a way to really bring people together and provide a shared resource. In Birley Fields campus, there are orchards where people use the apples to make cider and we wanted to emulate that idea.

How did you approach integrating the new green spaces with the existing neighbourhood? What was that process like?

It was all about balancing what was already there with sensitive improvements. For example, Gartside Gardens – the park – was flat with a few trees but it lacked variety and a sort of playfulness. It was also quite unsafe – it was in a dimly lit part of the neighbourhood and was fronted by a block of flats. We reworked it with natural mounds, rocks and curved paths to make it more interesting and inviting, especially for families. We did have to sacrifice around a third of the existing park to build the townhouses but that actually worked in its favour. Now, the houses overlook the park improving natural surveillance. With the townhouses mostly populated by families, more people are looking out for the children playing. It’s an echo of the old park but a lot safer.

The existing community were really keen to get involved throughout the whole process. It was great for us because we could get a real sense of what was needed. There were continuous consultations with residents that influenced everything about the neighbourhood – from size and location to the general purpose of the green spaces. Our intention was always to develop a sense of ownership from keep the existing residents while improving on and building the new neighbourhood.