“I have roots in the UK and Wales so it was an easy fit and I was living in London at the time. Influences and research included municipal spaces and Manchester’s great libraries and halls — places of democracy, community, and aspiration. The station counters are a terrazzo made from salvaged Manchester brick, made by Granby Workshop.The gummy-gloss bluette coffee klatch is a homogenous expression made by Darwen Terra Cotta, of Blackburn, one of the oldest companies making facades, sinks and tiles in the UK.
The listed building had stringent rules around protecting the structural steel which we’d concluded through historical records was this powder blue tone. There’s a lot of tonality in what I do, but all that color — the red of the brick, the blue of the columns — gave me permission to be calmer, gentler. We met local fabricators and makers in the North first and let the design follow. We felt it should be a public place for all ages and people. Letting it unfold and be informed by context, location or origin is the most intuitive way of working. It obviously helps when your dear friends and collaborators are Pablo and David.” LD
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW MEREDITH, LOREN DAYE.
