Building of the Year 2025 Shortlist: Campfield
Campfield was launched in June 2025, having transformed three Grade-II listed market halls in Manchester’s St. John’s district into a world-class creative tech hub. Spanning over 135,000 sq ft, the campus combines flexible workspace, media studios, production facilities, event venues, and coworking spaces, designed to foster collaboration, innovation, and wellbeing.
The restoration of Campfield carefully balances heritage and contemporary interventions. Original brickwork and iron structures have been preserved and celebrated alongside glass-roofed atria, bespoke joinery, and interconnected mezzanines that flood the building with natural light.
The core design of Campfield redefines the modern workplace with a future-focused environment built for deep tech, media, and modern enterprises. The iconic glass-roofed market halls provide flexible, creation-centric spaces that are designed to inspire productivity and encourage collaboration.
Campfield is more than just a workplace, it is a cultural destination that integrates social and cultural life. Every weekend it opens its doors to the wider community hosting a weekly market, reintroducing Campfield’s original use as a public gathering space and reviving its legacy as a destination for culture, commerce and trade.
The building carefully preserves heritage with cutting-edge infrastructure to meet the rapidly evolving needs of Manchester’s digital and media sectors.
The design concept is rooted in everything that modern businesses expect from a workspace; hospitality-inspired features and amenities that provide value through experience. The building’s amenities including a café, mezzanine bar, media studios, and an event space all create a dynamic ecosystem that people genuinely love working and being in.
Campfield exemplifies sustainable design by integrating environmental stewardship, economic resilience, and social inclusion into every aspect of the project. Environmental sustainability was embedded from the outset through the sensitive restoration of two Grade-II listed market halls. It sensitively preserves existing structures to reduce construction waste and carbon. The glass-roofed atria and open layouts maximise natural daylight, reducing energy demand and enhancing occupant wellbeing. It’s high-spec building systems optimise heating, cooling, and lighting efficiency, demonstrating a commitment to long-term operational sustainability.
From an economic perspective, good sustainability practices are achieved through creating a long-term, flexible, future-proof campus that supports a thriving ecosystem for creative, tech, and media businesses.
Join us for the Property and Construction Dinner on 5th March 2026 where we will be announcing the winner!
