SITE ANALYSIS

The old City Abattoir was in use from 1872 until the new Manchester Abattoir was opened in 1966, which generated the largest slaughtering output in England with over half a million animals a year being slaughtered there. The abattoir incorporates a full rage of accommodation, services, and equipment, creating a comprehensive meat production and distribution centre within the city.1

The 20-acre site is located only 3 miles from the city centre, however the site itself is in a quiet area with no residences in the vicinity of the area. The site is adjoined by a railway with a private siding to enable livestock to be delivered by rail directly to the area. The abattoir stopped functioning in 2000. Subsequently, it had been attempted to turn the meat market into a shopping mall, however the renovation was never finished and the abattoir remains in disuse, with the exception of its occasional use as a backdrop for TV dramas.

This site collage compiles vignettes of the urban textures of the industrial site as well as the ‘memories’ of the activities that took place. The site is defined by death, with the slaughtering of livestock occuring within the site and the cemetery being adjacent to it. The site is also filled with concrete and steel, creating a cold atmosphere that fuels the industrial feel of the place and brings to mind the slaughtering and processing of millions of animal carcasses that occured during the heyday of the abattoir.

The figure-ground diagram indicates a sparsely-built up area below the Manchester Abattoir with a fairly disordered urban grain. The neighbourhood to the top and bottom right shows a fine grain, whilst the warehouse and manufacturing areas to the left and above the abbatoir have a coarser, larger grain. The large voids of urban environment are at least sparsely filled with woodland. This large accumulation of voids can provide precedent for the layout of my subsequent proposals.

Part 1 Part 2

This design workshop challenged us to critically evaluate the site within its urban context and propose a strategic landscaping plan for a sustainable and inclusive future.

The first part of the workshop asked us to ‘cut out’ the site of the abattoir and treat the site as if it were empty. My analysis of the site used Kevin Lynch’s elements of the city to strategically define and categorise the landscape1 . This landscape strategy considers both human and non-human pathways surrounding the site. The site is well-serviced by road and rail networks. The cycle routes are fairly extensive adjacent to the site. The black-lined boundaries demarcate the areas with different “textures” and grains; urban vs natural, fine vs coarse, void vs object. The paths of the wildlife through the trees are speculative, however they can indicate a wildlife network that does not need to be interrupted by the urban build-up. This landscape strategy proposes a continuation of the wildlife network to increase biodiversity within the site and reduce the effect of urban heat island. The second part of the design workshop asked us to layer the existing abattoir buildings onto our initial landscaping proposal and then modify it to include the abattoir buildings. The modified landscaping strategy incoporates all of the existing structures other than the creation of a void between the lairage accommodation and the slaughter halls in order to allow for a tree network through the void. The addition of the buildings means that the east-west path of trees through the site can no longer be accommodated, leaving only the north-south ecological network only. This aspect could be ameliorated by removing some facades of som buildings to create a park allow for more greenery to be implemented within the site and improve the east-west ecological connections. The diagrams on the right indicate the site strategies to be implemented within my design. The improvement of ecological networks will benefit the non-human inhabitants of the area, whilst the connection of different urban textures aims to invite people from the surrounding neighbourhoods, retail areas, and industrial areas, creating a hub of interaction and connection. ecological networks

connecting different urban textures

The photos at the top of the page demonstrate the impressive concrete structures of the abattoir, accentuated by steel fixtures1. Despite the natural light that streams in through various skylights, the building atmosphere remains cold and unnatural.

The 1:200 site model explores the massing of the refridgerated accommodation, the slaughter and by-products hall, and the lairage accommodation buildings. The model's facades and roof are detachable and the concrete structure has been modelled as well, allowing for iterative exploration using this model.