Making Britain’s future Olympic champions in Manchester.

We’re delighted to see our plans for Modern Surf, Manchester’s first inland surfing lagoon, featured in the Architects’ Journal. Designed with health and wellbeing at its heart, the new leisure destination is where people can get outside, connect with nature and experience all the benefits of being near water.

The two-hectare lagoon, powered by Wavegarden, is surrounded by a cluster of buildings offering a surf academy, changing areas, as well as a clubhouse with bar, restaurant, shop and viewing terraces.

Project director Nick Strachan told the AJ the timing of the scheme was ‘perfect’. ‘It really excites us that with the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, rescheduled for this summer, being the first year that surfing is an Olympic sport, we are developing a legacy for Trafford that could one day potentially produce a future Olympic champion,’ he said.

‘There is strong peer-reviewed evidence to support the positive effect that swimming or water exercise can contribute to the treatment of conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder and depression,’ he said. ‘Post-Covid, such facilities will become highly valued additions to the health services that local authorities already provide.’