Planning permission has been granted to Viridis Living as Manchester City Council has approved a Reserved Matters Planning Consent for transformation of the Fallowfield student campus.
This came after Equitix, Graham construction and Derwent FM, forming a consortium, has seen there £400 million project green-lighted by the Manchester City Council, where the University’s 24-acre Fallowfield site will be refurbished to accommodate 15 storeys that will deliver 3,300 student homes.
This means that the development can begin based on the initial design and landscaping plans, that will cover Oak House, Owens House and Woolton Hall. The redevelopment will ensure 3,300 ‘modern and high-quality’ accommodation for the University’s students
To ensure its commitment to fire safety, the consortium had submitted an application in June 2025, to the Building Safety Regulator three months prior to their planning consent.
Neil McFarlene, the Project Director of Graham construction, has said that ‘inclusion, accessibility and student wellbeing’ are rooted into the approved scheme. The approval towards the planning application was a result of delivering on challenging environmental and sustainable targets as well as engaging with the local community, says McFarlene.
The University’s Chief Property Officer, Barry Mac Ruairí, says that the approval is a ‘major milestone’ in providing the best quality student housing and facilities in Fallowfield. The scheme is a significant undertaking, but the University is dedicated to delivering and upholding quality throughout the process. Ruairí ends her statement by claiming there are more obstacles to overcome and the University is steadfast in achieving its goals of ‘residential renewal’.
The design company, Shepard Robson, has reported that their design plans put student wellbeing at the ‘heart of the scheme’ so as to ‘encourage togetherness’ through having many green spaces, communal spaces and extra study spaces scattered across the new campus.
According to the company’s partner Natalia Maximova, the redevelopment scheme will include an additional 900 rooms, where 20% will be offered at premium rates and 80% to be sold at standard price.
The new campus design aims to compliment the ‘layered history and character’ of the area’s rich environmental scene to preserving the ‘Cosmos 1’ relief sculpture by Mitzi Cunliffe.
Maximova explains that the transformation will be based on five distinct neighbourhoods, that vary in ‘colours, textures, and finished, with sustainability as unifying threads’ that seeks to create a sense of belonging and community.
Featured image via Google Maps.
