In 2009 with support from the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), Places Matter! offered accredited training in Building for Life for representatives from every local authority in the Northwest.  With over 40 accredited assessors in the region CABE have made available further support to establish an Assessors network as a forum to exchange information and gain experience on the practicalities of using Building for Life.  Similar networks are also receiving support elsewhere in the country.

Timber Wharf, Manchester

On 30 June 2010 for the first meeting of the Assessors Network in the Northwest Places Matter! invited assessors to visit three schemes that won Building for Life Awards in 2003 to see how they are operating 7 years on.  We began at Urban Splash’s HQ – Timber Wharf in Manchester, where Tom Fenton, Director of Development showed us over the city centre site which includes 181 units of apartments and offices.  We moved on to see Chorlton Park, a 27 unit site of flats and duplexes grouped around a central courtyard.  This former petrol station site was developed by Irwell Valley Housing following a local design competition.  The final stop was at Didsbury Point where Mick Timpson of DPP Shape showed us around the site which he worked on as a masterplan with EDAW.  This former hospital site was developed in several phases by Countryside Properties.  Now nearing completion the earlier phases demonstrated the lasting value of design quality whereas some of the later phases suffered from a lack of detailing and attention in terms of the design and the delivery of the public realm.  Parking remains a difficulty on the site despite Countryside developing a new standard housetype which incorporated additional cars within each housing plot.  Nevertheless the scale of development at Didsbury Point make it an interesting scheme to visit to see how the scheme has incorporated access, servicing parking, public spaces and a variety of house and flat types.

Feedback from the event has been positive not least in terms of making connections between local authority officers working in different areas.  At the present time there is funding for a further event later in the year where we hope assessors will have the opportunity to undertake an assessment exercise on a newly built scheme.

Information on all the sites is available from www.buildingforlife.org

Places Matter! would like to thank Broadway Malyan for hosting the Assessors Network at their Manchester Offices.