#HTE

If a train terminal, a public library and a classy restaurant collided, the result would be CULTUREPLEX – a collection of spaces designed to be continuously remoulded around individuals who engage with them. The building, with interiors designed by Loren Daye of Brooklyn-based studio LOVEISENOUGH, is pitched as a social and cultural destination in Manchester. The project reignites the cultural heartbeat of a former goods warehouse overlooking the Piccadilly Basin, bringing meaningful social interaction and energetic collaboration into the area. The building now houses an 80-seater restaurant, Bistrotheque, three meeting and event spaces and a coffee counter named Klatch, serving health foods by day and craft beer and natural wines by night.

The design seeks to celebrate local industry, makers and craftsmen, Daye encouraging contribution from local community members to create an energetic space allowing for the appreciation of creative industries. Collaborators include ceramicists at Granby Workshop and Standard Practice, landscape studio Nonsense Studio and woodworkers at Benchmark among others, who all through sharing their work, welcome a new wave of innovation in Northern Craft.

The industrial heritage of the original warehouse has been respected and highlighted, as Daye acknowledges the existing narratives which are already imprinted on its walls. The original column system and the rust brick arches remain intact, new additions such as partitions, align with the existing grid rather than creating a new flow within the floor plan. All structural steel throughout the building has been coated in a soft blue hue, an homage to their original colour – another quiet but sensitive choice that retains the past voice of the building.

There is a soft colour palette consisting largely of cream, caramel and green tones which sit alongside a collection of layered furnishings such as hung quilts, flatweave rugs and pottery lamps, together injecting visual complexity into the space. Caramel soft furnishings layered with timber panelled walls, create a warm, inviting interior that isn’t distracting but quietly sophisticated in its textural nuance. Warm leather seating wraps around a working body accompanied by their laptop. Tiled seating areas position strangers to sit side by side.

There is a consistent juxtaposition and different interpretation of seating arrangements that grounds this project, each new configuration powerful enough to curate the social interaction which unfolds around the user. Each arrangement takes on its own personality – some inviting exchange while others, with accessible power sockets and low lounge chairs, become places to work or rest. There is a multiplicity in its use, designed as a place where all walks of life are encouraged to come together to bring new life into a forgotten industrial building.

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