Member Article

Students bring Windmill Green to life with eye-catching art installation

An innovative art project has been launched at Windmill Green in Manchester.
Creative students have depicted a Day in the Life of Manchester’s most exciting new workspace in a series of eye-catching designs. Owners FORE Partnership ran an innovative programme that saw design students from the city’s Shillington College create a set of artwork for the building’s hoardings which are in place while construction is underway. The school’s graphic design and graphic communication students were given real commercial experience on the project which included taking part in creative workshops with FORE’s branding agency The Neighbourhood. They were then given a brief to capture a day in the life of the building at different time slots. The chosen designs have transformed the local environment around Mount Street, Windmill Street and Manchester Central Plaza. The programme with Shillington College follows on from FORE’s work with Manchester Metropolitan University last year which saw MMU take over the building for its art students, culminating in the successful Unit X exhibition. The exhibition was attended by more than 1,000 people; prior to this the building had been vacant for seven years. Basil Demeroutis, Managing Partner of FORE, said: “Windmill Green will become a base for an inspiring, collaborative and creative community of workers, so it only seemed fitting that we reach out to local design students to help us bring the building to life while construction work is underway. “This effort is part of our sustainable value philosophy, which seeks to push the boundaries on not only energy efficiency but social impact, community, and forward-thinking design.” The posters capture the features that set this key city development apart, including the way it promotes cycling and healthy living, its café, green wall, collaborative work space and roof top garden. The graphics for the hoarding designs have been created by Mehul Patel, Katie Neal and Xingyu Chai. They are all recent graduates from the graphic design course at Shillington College on Portland Street.

Steve Waring, course tutor at Shillington College, said: “It has been a fantastic opportunity for a number of our design students to gain real world experience, and get their work published. It has been refreshing to work collaboratively with the creators of Windmill Green.” Windmill Green is FORE Partnership’s innovative and inspiring workspace development underway at 24 Mount Street. The transformational real estate investment firm is moving forward with its plans to create a flexible, collaborative business community, after being granted planning approval by Manchester City Council last year. Demolition work is now complete as the entrepreneurial hub, set over seven-floors across the 78,000 sq ft building, enters the construction phase. FORE’s plans will see the building rejuvenated to create highly sustainable Grade A offices, anchored by a co-working space and a crafted interior design. Construction is set to complete in Spring 2018. Lambert Smith Hampton and Knight Frank are the joint agents for Windmill Green.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Emily Hallinan .