Open grows Manchester team

Design studio Open has expanded its Manchester office and hired two members of staff, bringing its headcount up to 11.

Calum Oakes, pictured above, has joined as a landscape designer from his role as a landscape architect at Harrison Stevens Landscape Architecture & Urban Design. He has previously worked on the grade-one listed Cathedral Church of St Nicholas in Newcastle,. and Calton Hill Observatory in Edinburgh.

Laura Brown has also joined Open as its Manchester office manager. She has previously held the role of office manager at Chameleon Events and new business manager at Simpson Millar.

The pair bring the total members of staff in Open’s Manchester office up to 11.

Aoife Rath-Cullimore, who already worked for Open, has also been promoted to senior architect.

Open is currently working on the 3,500-home masterplan for Stockport Town Centre West and helped to deliver Macclesfield’s SRF which was endorsed by Cheshire East Council last week.

Jaimie Ferguson, founder of the Manchester studio and director at Open, said: “This comes in response to growing demand for our advice across a range of sectors; from town centre transformation and brownfield regeneration to the planning of sustainable new places.

“We are increasingly helping clients take these complex development projects through all stages of planning and implementation. The growth is really a validation on the hard work and creative output of the team, built up over the last few years.”