Scholars Fields is the largest new-build residential development in Wythenshawe since the 1950s. The 147-home development is located on a redundant school playing field and comprises a mix of houses and apartments for rent-to-buy, shared ownership and private sale.

In 2018, we were appointed by Wythenshawe Community Housing Group (WCHG) via the JV North Framework, to transform a redundant school playing field into a new mixed tenure community.

The site was heavily constrained, being bounded by housing and the remaining school playing fields and had no existing access. To mitigate this, we masterplanned the site to incorporate new access points through existing void housing plots to unlock the development.

In developing the design for the neighbourhood, we adopted ‘Building for Life’ principles to ensure the estate would be well connected, defined and had character.

The original Wythenshawe estate was developed as a garden city and has a distinct vernacular style. A key focus of our early design work was therefore collaboration with the planning authority and the WCHG team to ensure our proposals reflected the character of the surrounding dwellings whilst still meeting viability targets and future maintenance aspirations.

By designing in 3D Revit software, we were able to exchange information interactively with the stakeholders and local community. This included developing digital walk throughs and virtual reality experiences which provided clarity and guidance and facilitated early acceptance, sign off and early submission and approval from the planning authority.

The final scheme comprises 147 new-build houses and apartments for affordable rent, shared ownership and outright sale – responding to the local need and creating a sustainable new neighbourhood.

Working closely with WCHG, contractor Willmott Dixon and the adjacent Manchester Academy we provided social value initiatives, including regular student events. These included groups visiting our office to experience design opportunities and visiting site to see how the used the production information for construction. We delivered career events at the academy to promote opportunities within the construction industry.