Eurocity

The Manser Practice have been involved with the project every day from start to finish, winning the invited design competition, achieving planning permission, and delivering the project with a dedicated site team to ensure the quality of the project was maintained throughout the construction process.

Early on in the design stage TMP successfully negotiated an increase in the height limit imposed on the site by the nearby airport. This allowed taller, slender buildings that create more space at the lower levels for pools and landscaping. The orientation of these towers optimises views of Spain, Morocco and the Rock of Gibraltar, whilst the curved forms maximise sunlight to the lower levels and provide a distinctive new building typology for the city.

Internally, each apartment is finished to a high specification that features frameless, full height doors, floor to ceiling windows, and a calm, neutral material palette specially selected for the Mediterranean climate.

Externally, the building’s ‘butterfly’ shaped roofs collect rainwater for the podium gardens, which have been designed as a series of unique habitats to boost biodiversity on the site and the surrounding area. At ground level, the project is defined by new public passageways and a central cooling courtyard that creates a quiet green escape away from the traffic and midday heat, inspired by the territory’s North African architectural heritage.

There were a number of challenges on the project, such as building on reclaimed land, complications arising from Brexit, a construction budget of around £2000/sq.m, and local contractors not used to such close attention to detail. However TMP’s experience of seeing buildings through to completion ensured that the building has become a new benchmark of quality in the city’s business district.

Gibraltar

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