Mayfield Park takes centre stage at MIPIM

The quality and utility of our public spaces are too often overlooked and play only a subordinate role to buildings, roads and utilities.

U+I The Mayfield Partnership is in the process of turning this orthodoxy on its head and will use the Park Life panel event, in the Manchester Pavilion at international property conference MIPIM, to debate the importance successful public spaces.

At Mayfield the process of creating a new 6-acre park – part of 13 acres of public realm in total – as the centrepiece for its £1bn development scheme is well underway. The park and associated public realm will be an exemplar of how to create liveable, people-centred open spaces that are at least as important and as carefully thought out as the buildings which frame them.

This will be Manchester’s very first city centre park and will flank the banks of the River Medlock which meanders through the site.

An expert panel will explore the challenge of creating open spaces and infrastructure which go beyond their primary utilitarian purpose and which are designed to foster both wellbeing and economic growth.

The discussion will hear from:

• Joanne Roney, CEO, Manchester City Council
• James Heather, Development Director, U+I
• Stephen O’Malley, Founding Director, Civic Engineers
• Maria Vassilakou, Deputy Mayor and Deputy Governor of Vienna
• David D Rudlin, Director, URBED, and the Academy of Urbanism

The Park Life panel event will take place at the Manchester Pavilion at 16.30 CET, 15.30 GMT.

Not attending MIPIM? You can view the presentation online here