Modernist Society talk: Making Post-War Manchester at BDP Studios

Coming next Thursday is a talk by the ever-popular Modernist Society about a Manchester that might have been. Making Post-War Manchester – Vision of an Unbuilt City will take place at BDP Studios in Piccadilly Basin. The hosts, academics Richard Brook and Martin Dodge, will be leading guests through an alternate history of the area’s developments. During the 1960s, Manchester was booming and the powers that the be wanted to modernise it from a manufacturing to a service-based economy. Almost the entire city centre was scheduled for redevelopment, and the town planners had a grand scheme featuring entertainment, shopping, and employment complexes. There was even to be moving walkways and helipads. However, the scale proved to be too ambitious and only a fraction of the developments were ever built. Luckily, the original planning documents were saved, and the ‘lost city’ has been recreated through the use of 3D modelling, so modern audiences can experience them.

Fri 16 Sep, BDP Studios, 11 Ducie Street, Piccadilly Basin, Manchester, M1 2JP, 6.30pm – 8.30pm, £5/£4, www.modernist-society.org