iQ Chandos House

Opening for students in 2026, the amenity spaces of Chandos House in Manchester will include extensive study, social, wellness, dining and entertainment facilities with a focus on catering for the needs of a diverse student population and responding to the demands of the contemporary educational landscape. Our design shifts between intimate protected spaces and habitable structures which make the most of double-height spaces.

We were inspired by the rich tradition of brutalist public art in the neighbourhood as well as two instances of pioneering Mancunian ingenuity which find a common language in the image of patterned punchcards; Jacquard weaving looms which enabled accessible patterned textiles, and the ‘Manchester Baby’ (Small Scale Experimental Machine’, the first computer to run a stored program and the precursor to modern computing.

Graphics, bold shots of orange, and joinery details sample from the interiors of early computer labs and pixellated language of loom punchcards and the first computer graphics, and materials are selected for their robustness and simplicity of expression.