Making Places: Contemporary Architecture in the City

Three Manchester Architects: Holford Associates, Simpson Associates and Stephenson Architecture.
September 13th-October 6th 1991

Places and buildings create a city’s image and atmosphere. As makers of places and images, architects provide the means by which the city is perceived by it’s inhabitants, recalled by visitors and explored in the imagination. Architecture is the most powerful expression of a community’s self-image and aspirations.

Recently many of Manchester and Salford’s new buildings have superficially intimidated their Victorian neighbours. What does this communicate? A denial of present and future. To international visitors, a provincial introspection working against our desire for recognition as a European centre.

This exhibition of three Manchester architects, Holford Associates, Simpson Associates and Stephenson Architecture, represents an alternative approach to the placing of new buildings in an old context. By using international architectural language to fulfil today’s needs, they adopt the city’s spirit without plagiarising it’s past. Weaving together the urban fabric with modern strategies and interventions in the present, while the past retains it’s dignity.

In the first exhibition of current architecture in Manchester, The Castlefield Gallery aims to highlight the role of art galleries within the cities future. Recognising architecture’s importance as a visual art, we set a precedent for similar exhibitions elsewhere.