Sister Manchester

We are delivering the Public Realm & Landscape Masterplan for Sister – Manchester’s new £1.7bn innovation district.

Sister is Manchester’s new innovation district. A place where communities come together, ideas flourish, and businesses of the future are built.

Sister will transform The University of Manchester’s former North campus into a pulsating new city centre neighbourhood. Once complete, Sister will deliver over 2 million sq ft of commercial, innovation, and retail space, 1,500 new homes, and create 10,000 new jobs.

As the project’s Lead Public Realm & Landscape Masterplanner over several years, we have designed the public realm as a vibrant ‘human collider’ to foster innovation and collaborations.

The landscape design includes a new civic square for public events and shared spaces to meet, eat, work, and play; characterful green connecting routes and spaces across and beyond the site area; and a living landscape of urban spaces, parks, and communal terraces that celebrate the area’s heritage and infuse the historical site with new and high-functioning city nature.

All gathered in a full nine acres (36,000 m2) of true Mancunian public realm for nature, community, and great ideas to be born.

To give nature a head start, SLA and Layer.studio have designed a temporary on-site tree and plant nursery for Sister, realized in 2024.

Home to more than 140 trees and 140 shrubs, the nursery is designed not simply as a place for plants to grow, but as a series of welcoming urban spaces for everyday breaks and public events.

As the development of Sister progresses, all the trees and plants can be easily moved and replanted in their permanent locations across the neighbourhood.

Sister is delivered together with our client, a joint venture between The University of Manchester and Bruntwood SciTech, and our great friends and collaborators Allies and Morrison with Stanhope, Deloitte, ARUP, Layer Studio, Stephen Levrant Heritage Architecture, Useful Projects, Ekosgen, and Arcadis.

The development of the Sister site will take place in phases over the next 15-20 years, and the first building onsite, the Renold Building, opened already in 2024. The vision, objectives and design principles that will guide the future development of the site are set out in a Strategic Regeneration Framework (SRF) for the site.