Northwest diners have a unique new dining experience this Summer, as commercial fitout company Consensus Workspace has worked with Wayne Hemingway and MediaCityUK to install ‘Box on the Docks’, a series of 30 bespoke outdoor constructions for local hospitality providers in the Salford community.
Each box will provide additional outside space for eating and drinking and has been decorated by an independent artist, with designs including neon light installations and murals, sound projections and poetry. Consensus were approached by MediaCityUK and Peel to supply and fit the structures once Hemingway Designs’s proposals were approved and worked quickly to install the structures safely and securely for launch at the end of July.
Andy Plastow, MD of Consensus Workspace, comments: “The high winds at MediaCity meant that off-the-shelf structures were not an option. We worked with Elite Greenhouses to create specially strengthened glass booths and built extra strong sheds for the boxes, as they needed to be robust enough for the location while still staying true to the initial designs and providing a fun dining experience for all.”
Stephen Wild, Managing Director at MediaCityUK, said: “We know the hospitality and creative industries have been among the hardest hit by the impact of Covid-19, and ‘Box on the Docks’ is our way of helping them back on their feet. ‘Box on the Docks’ is the first in a series of initiatives, which will see us partnering with our key occupiers and the wider cultural community to deliver exciting outdoor activities during these uniquely challenging times.”
Wayne Hemingway, co-founder of HemingwayDesign said: “ At HemingwayDesign we are “glass half full” and after all these months of lockdown we are keen to emerge having fun (safely of course!) and support both local creative practitioners as well as the cafés and restaurants who have been shut down for all these months. ‘Box on the Docks’ delivers on all these and gives people a welcome dash of serendipity. It was a quick turnaround and Consensus Workspace were brilliant at getting the structures created quickly so that our artists could get to work.”
Concludes Andy: “We usually work with leisure providers, retailers and office interior specialists – so this was a little different, but great fun to build. It’s a fantastic initiative, we’ve been so impressed by how the leisure and hospitality industry has adapted throughout COVID and we were delighted to be involved.”
