The Filaments
The Filaments is a Build to Rent development on Gore Street in Greater Manchester. Located a stone’s throw from Salford station & the thriving new quarter of New Bailey. TEN London worked with Grainger Plc to deliver the interior design for the development, consisting of 375 apartments with over 6500 square ft of amenity space.
The Filaments is Grainger’s second Build to Rent property in Greater Manchester and our aim was to create clear differentiation from their Clipper’s Quay BTR scheme through the interior design of the amenity & public spaces. The building’s location, a stones throw from Manchester’s city centre and vibrant areas like Spinningfields and Deansgate lent itself to an elegant & modern city-centre aesthetic.
The design journey began with a broad vision anchored on two key design concepts: promoting resident well-being through considered design & bringing touches of the city’s industrial history to the interior in a sophisticated way.
With the rise of working from home, we considered ways in which the amenity can be utilised for various styles of working – individual and collaborative. This resulted in zones that have been designed with this functionality in mind. Top level amenity, while remaining open-plan has been zoned in a way that both group and individual activities can exist simultaneously in the same space without disruption, with moving walls that can physically divide the space in two, if required.
Alongside this we strategically designed a number of joinery pieces in order to encourage residents to gather and connect as a community. The open-plan space is populated with ‘pockets’ where smaller groups of neighbours and friends can inhabit simultaneously.
Colours have played a key role in helping to give a certain narrative and feel to each zone. The ground floor lobby, for example, uses deeper, richer colours to make the space feel a little more formal, whilst the lounge spaces upstairs stick to a more relaxed, pastel palette. Light terracotta wall colours were inspired by the brick facades of Manchester’s industrial warehouses, while the geometric tiling feature, consistent through every floor subtly references the woven textile manufacturing that put the city on the map in the 19th century.
