Breathing new life into Gresham

Part of a wider masterplan to supercharge development in Middlesbrough, the Gresham redevelopment will transform a parcel of land that lies between the town centre, Teesside University and the Gresham neighbourhood.

The development will feature build-to-rent properties alongside residential accommodation for students and a hotel. This high-quality accommodation will help attract and retain talent in the town, support the growth of Teesside University and kick-start plans to regenerate the centre of Middlesbrough by attracting up to 4,000 jobs. To deliver the £200m scheme, the mayoral-led Middlesbrough Development Corporation (MDC) has joined forces with experienced property developers iMpeC and Buccleuch Property.

Build-to-rent properties

244+

Places in residential accommodation for students

471

Bed hotel

200

Location

Middlesborough, North Yorkshire, UK

Client

iMpeC | Buccleuch Property | Tees Valley Combined Authority

Project Status

Planning Permission Granted

Partners

Corstophine & Wright | Wates

Determined to generate maximum value for the public investment in this complex project, iMpeC turned to our team to provide multidisciplinary expertise under a single leadership. From waste strategy experts to ecologists and structural engineers, over 40 of our specialists have worked on the Gresham masterplan. They’ve strived to make the scheme as effective and efficient as possible.

Our vision remains focused on delivering high-quality housing and accommodation, comparable to the best in other towns and cities, with the goal of attracting and retaining talented individuals to Middlesbrough.

Neil McMillan Director, iMpeC

Neil McMillan Director, iMpeC

Optimising building performance with digital and AI

Together, our teams focussed on enabling robust, evidence-based decision-making to improve building performance and cut carbon. Our parametric design tool, Daisy, which combines digital and AI, was central to this approach.

Daisy tests thousands of combinations to understand the interaction between architecture, structures, building services and facades. Using these capabilities at the earliest stages of a project highlights trade-offs, enabling design decisions that can substantially improve performance.

Daisy's simulation for Gresham ran over 4,000 scenarios across energy, carbon, daylight, and overheating. The results were displayed intuitively so that stakeholders could easily understand the recommendations. For example, Daisy revealed opportunities to enhance the architect's initial benchmark design, which already had a strong sense of place and connection to the outdoors. The simulations provided insights for improvements in energy use, facade carbon and daylight.

Daisy highlighted the following opportunities to enhance the benchmark design:

Reduce facade embodied carbon by 182tCO₂
Cut facade area by 708m², saving £420,800
Lower heating energy consumption by 3.5%
Minimise overheating risk from the 30th to 11th percentile

Highlighting this has enabled the architect to integrate carbon and whole-building performance considerations into the scheme’s future design stages and will inform discussions with the local planning authority to secure planning consent.

Daisy provided over 4,000 combinations for this project, addressing key factors such as energy, carbon, daylight and overheating. These crucial insights will empower the architect to incorporate carbon considerations into future design stages and will inform discussions with the local planning authority.

Daniel Chauhan Associate Director, WSP

Daniel Chauhan Associate Director, WSP

Responding to emerging legislation

We brought the same emphasis on effectiveness and efficiency to other areas of the project too. With a wetland of international importance (a Ramsar Site) nearby, our ecologists had to devise a way to mitigate nutrients entering watercourses. This is important in reducing eutrophication, a process where nutrients accumulating in the water increase growth of microorganisms that then deplete oxygen levels and could harm wildlife.

Some offsite mitigation in the form of new grassland is also required to fulfil Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) requirements at Gresham – because the development site has reverted to grass since it was cleared of terraced houses. However, by concentrating on finding the most effective approaches within the development, we have been able to increase onsite BNG from around 10% to around 70%. Although the design initially featured green walls and green gable ends, we found a simple alternative that would have a much bigger effect on biodiversity: selecting more mature trees instead of younger ones for the open spaces within the development.

Because the Gresham development features tall buildings amid lower rise surroundings, we carried out modelling to ensure that wind deflection wouldn’t cause disruptive or dangerous conditions at ground level. We also had to factor in the requirements in the Building Safety Act 2022 for buildings over 18m and the changes to fire engineering this necessitated.

Other challenges included securing access to enough electrical power on the site. With extensive experience of working alongside Northern Powergrid, we led our client through the application process – arguing their case for upgraded connections in competition with other schemes.

However, through all the technical complexities, we remained focussed on helping this scheme achieve its ultimate aim: making Gresham a great place to live, work and study.

Placemaking development and urban regeneration

Our placemaking, regeneration and development specialists helped turn our client’s vision for place into a practical reality, futureproofing our cities and environment.