Getting Technical at Carver’s Warehouse
‘Use our city’s heritage intelligently’ was the message delivered to the University of Manchester’s WiSET network by engineer Martin Stockley during his technical tour of Carver’s Warehouse at the Piccadilly Basin development.WiSET (Women in Science, Engineering and Technology) is a network for all female students, research and academic staff in the faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Manchester. Now in its third year, WiSET was established to support and encourage more women into the science, engineering and technology professions.
The WiSET group visited Manchester’s oldest surviving warehouse, Carver’s Warehouse, which has undergone a sensitive conversion and restoration to incorporate five floors of environmentally sustainable office accommodation into the listed building. Consulting engineers, Martin Stockley Associates, undertook the engineering and construction management of the restoration and reuse and were so enamoured with the project that they relocated their Manchester office into the top two floors of the building. Chief Executive, Martin Stockley, led the tour to talk to the network about the importance of reusing existing buildings and the technical elements of creating a sustainable working environment within a listed building.
Speaking of his involvement, Martin said; “I was keen to lead the tour for a number of reasons. The work being undertaken at Town Centre Securities’ Piccadilly Basin scheme plays an integral part of the city’s continuing regeneration. The scheme comprises a number of listed structures including Carver’s Warehouse, Brownsfield Mill, Jackson’s Warehouse and the listed canal structures and impressive new builds like the BDP designed building. I wanted to put the project into context and show how Piccadilly Basin has created a unique mixed use environment that is woven into the fabric of the city. The discussion covered the technical aspects of converting and restoring such listed structures and the wider site and city issues that require engineering intelligence to get the most appropriate solutions The engineering profession is crying out for creative minds that can see the value in preserving existing ‘stock’ like Carver’s Warehouse. Looking back to eras such as the 1960’s we had a poor understanding of the cultural and social values of our buildings and as a result, many were destroyed. We hope that tours such as this can help to get the engineering minds of the future to use our cities more intelligently."
Alison McMurray, Senior Project Officer in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, continued; “Martin’s tour was really fascinating and inspiring. Students enjoy tours and site visits in the ‘real world’ so we are always looking for exciting projects such as Carver’s Warehouse to demonstrate the successes of the engineering profession and ultimately encourage more young women to make this their career of choice."