Praised, then razed: why is UK's best building of 1996 being demolished?

The Guardian

08-02-2025

When judges awarded Salford's Centenary Building the inaugural Stirling prize in 1996, they declared it 'a dynamic, modern and sophisticated exercise in steel, glass and concrete'.
The recognition as Britain's best new building from the Royal Institute of British Architects cemented Salford as an emblem of emerging northern architecture.
But last month Salford city council approved the demolition of the Centenary Building – which has not been in use since at least 2021– despite vocal opposition from preservation campaigners and the architecture industry.
The Crescent partnership, which includes Salford city council, English Cities Fund (ECF) and Salford University, which owns the building, said in a joint statement that while 'careful consideration has been given to the history of the building with multiple options explored', it will be demolished next month as part of the comprehensive development of Adelphi village, an area surrounding the university. The project is part of a £2.5bn plan that aims to deliver housing. 'While the Centenary Building has been part of the university estate for a number of decades, it is now unecological to run, with major structural, heating and ventilation flaws throughout,' the partnership said.
Critics, however, say the decision is 'wasteful and irresponsible' and are urging the partnership to change their minds. The Twentieth Century Society criticised the decision not to list the building and said it wasn't too late for the university to reconsider its plans. 'The decision has allowed the local authority to wave through demolition without adequate scrutiny,' said its director, Catherine Croft. Opened in 1995 by the Duke of Edinburgh, in the area east of the River Irwell, and originally designed for the University of Salford's school of electrical engineering department, the building was used by the faculty of art and design technology upon completion.
Stephen Hodder, the architect responsible for the Centenary Building, said he was disappointed, and felt that history was being erased, as it had been built to mark 100 years since the formation of the university. 'The question has always got to be, has that building outlived its usefulness? Georgian buildings were candle lit, and then electricity was introduced,' Hodder said. 'So a building has got to be capable of being upgraded in its life.
'It was part of the brief that the building needed to be flexible. There's a servicing strategy within that building to allow it to be changed and upgraded.
'My reading of the situation is somebody's taking the commercial decision over the cost of it being upgraded.'
The Twentieth Century Society tried to have the building listed by Historic England, but the public body concluded in its initial assessment report that, when considered against the high standard required for buildings of its age, the Centenary Building lacked the special interest in a national context required to merit listing. Previous attempts to adapt the building for a different use have also failed – proposed plans to convert it into a primary school were shelved in 2018. Until 2021, the Channel 4 reality series The Circle had editing suites in the building while filming in a residential block opposite.
The Twentieth Century Society has described the demolition as 'wasteful and irresponsible', and critics point to the carbon footprint of the construction industry. In 2022 England generated 63m tonnes of non-hazardous construction and demolition waste. Making bricks and steel creates vast amounts of CO2, with cement alone causing 8% of global emissions.
A Historic England study in 2019 stated that embodied emissions from refurbished or retrofitted buildings accounted for a minimum of 2% of a building's total emissions over 60 years. That figure rises to 28% in demolished and new buildings. Salford city council has a target of 2038 for net zero carbon emissions. Last month, Scott Atkinson, a mature construction student at Salford University walking by the Centenary Building, said there were other buildings on campus that were not fit for purpose. 'The construction industry is a beast that needs to be fed,' he said. 'If you drive around central Manchester long enough you'll see a new [building] going up every two minutes. If anyone had any sense in councils, they would just strip some of the old works out, put something new in. But there's more money to be made when you tear the whole thing down and build another big thing. Everybody makes money off that.'
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Blake Barker, a first-year marine biology student said he would be on board with the demolition if it meant more accommodation would be created, but was sceptical about redevelopment of the Adelphi village. 'It's a risk of it just being another cheap apartment building, because those Adelphi buildings are already kind of cheap,' he said.
Stephen McCusker, the architect lead at the Manchester School of Architecture, said the demolition approval for the Centenary Building raised wider questions about reusing old buildings in the UK. 'It made me even more passionate that we need to have real national teeth to enforce consideration of reuse before demolition,' he said. 'There are a lot of innovative developers and companies who are looking at material reuse and the circular economy.'
A spokesperson for the Crescent partnership said: 'Unfortunately [the Centenary Building's] infrastructure means it no longer meets modern standards and requirements. It has now been vacant for a third of its built life.
'The [redevelopment] project is part of the £2.5bn Crescent Salford masterplan which will deliver housing, to cater to a broad range of residents. Future proposals will also seek to incorporate sustainable building design practices and materials, ensuring support for Salford's sustainability goals.'