Appetite for contemporary living

It’s all in the name: three fat chips stacked on top of one another gave London-based star architect Will Alsop the inspiration for his new Chips building in New Islington, Manchester. The 100 metre long landmark houses a total of 142 one, two and three bedroom apartments. The ground floor of this bold development is exclusively used as commercial space. Expressive colours accentuate the slightly curved facade and give the complex an excitingly youthful look. The eye-catching headlines reproduced on the exterior walls hark back to the region’s industrial roots.

Just as chips are more appetising than plain boiled potatoes, the Chips project has a lot more allure than a run-of-the mill building. Already in the year 2000 architect Will Alsop won the Stirling Prize for his library building in Peckham, London, and has cultivated a reputation for bold and daring designs. His latest architectural delicacy is very much in tune with urban development in today’s Manchester, where bland industrial lines continue to make way for new and more inspired designs. By making Manchester a space for new and innovative urban and residential design, the planners want to make the city a desirable place to live for people across all income and age brackets.

The interior furnishings contribute to the unique character of the Chips complex. The appetite for bold design is catered to even in the bathrooms where the GROHE Essence faucets sitting atop the washbasins are confined to a single geometric shape, namely the cylinder. This penchant for clean and uncluttered lines is also reflected in the GROHE Tempesta handshowers. Thanks to the GROHE StarLight® treatment, these showers will never lose their shine and remain a point of attraction in the bathrooms for a long time to come. Other features, which may not be visible but are just as important, include the GROHE TurboStat® technology embedded in the Grohtherm 100 thermostat to protect users against scalding for complete peace of mind under the shower.

New Islington, Manchester's Millennium Community, is situated between the Ashton and Rochdale canals on the Northern edge of Manchester City Centre. Launched in 2002, Alsop's Strategic Framework for New Islington, lays out an exceptional place, modelled around new canal arms and an inspiring landscape.

Commissioned by Urban Splash in 2002, Chips presents the first new apartments for sale in New Islington and was inspired by three fat chips piled on top of one another. The Chips building comprises three equal height, long, thin new build masses (Chips) approximately 100m long by 14m wide stacked and staggered upon one another creating an elevated ground floor and eight levels comprising. 142 one, two and three bedroom apartments.

The building is clad in a composite wall faced with a cladding covered in newspaper print with text that echoes the industrial heritage of the Ancoats area. The design provides a mix of living and studio units and commercial space within a single project. The project defines a quality of living by combining outstanding design with technological innovation while embracing key concepts of sustainability, integration into the urban landscape and the provision of inspirational and sensational apartment units.

The building's apartment types range from studio spaces to three bed apartments. There is also a variety of differing external balconies. The apartments are planned internally around a central 'pod' unit, housing the bathroom and kitchen areas. The apartments can be open plan or sub-divided by the use of large folding screens.

The scheme achieves a BREEAM Eco- Homes Excellent rating, conforms to the Manchester Methodist Housing Trust scheme's stringent development standards and also meets the Sustainability guidelines as set out by the UK Homes and Communities agency as apart of the 'millennium community' programme.