Powering an extraordinary new neighbourhood from the ground up.
Located on the former BBC site on Oxford Road, Circle Square is a vibrant new neighbourhood at the heart of Manchester’s innovation district. Not just a community for students and young professionals, but an exciting destination to work, shop, eat and relax at the heart of Manchester.
Situated close to Manchester’s two universities, Circle Square is an ideal location for students and businesses alike. Employers benefit from the graduate talent, world class research and innovation coming from the universities, and flexible workspace to suit businesses of all sizes. Circle Square boasts ample leisure facilities for residents and visitors, all centred around Manchester’s newest green space, Symphony Park.
Sector
Master Planning
Value
£850 Million
Clients
Bruntwood
Select Property Group
Gallery
The IDNO
A joint venture between Bruntwood and Vita Living (formerly Select Property Group), Circle Square is one of Manchester’s most ambitious city centre regeneration projects. CWC were commissioned to undertake the design development of the infrastructure masterplanning and electrical distribution, including the design and production of a tender package, negotiations with ICPs and the procurement and monitoring of the entire distributed network.
Most of the site is served by a high voltage private wire network, operated and maintained by an IDNO (Independent Distribution Network Operator). This solution provides better value for the money and gives greater control to the client over how best to power this expansive site. CWC supported the client in negotiations to install the 23MVA primary substation and worked with ENWL for the delivery to serve the site and adjacencies, with an ongoing appointment to oversee all future connections into the 3-ring distribution network.
Outdoor Infrastructure
Outdoor events will be a key part of life at Circle Square, with significant investment going into the public realm and permanent terraced seating in Symphony Park. To facilitate this, CWC designed external “pop-ups”, providing utility connections at strategic locations, allowing outdoor events to be hosted without the need for generators. This will provide real ongoing value to event organisers by removing a major logistical challenge for every event. This was facilitated within very constrained service routes, requiring a high level of co-ordination with other utilities, such as drainage. The solution also serves other essential functions such as public realm lighting and CCTV, all coming back to one point for seamless management.
With half the neighbourhood complete, Circle Square is taking bold strides towards the neighbourhood of the future.
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