Manchester opens inner city boating lake

Bradford's pioneering urban mirror pool and fountains slap bang in front of City Hall is getting other big northern cities to feel watery. Manchester is the latest, with its very own boating lake newly-opened in the Piccadilly canal basin by those wondrous and imaginative humourists the Office for Subversive Architecture. Taking their name as a pastiche of the Rotterdam starchitect Rem Koolhaas's Office for Metropolitan Architecture , the group does all sorts of excellent pop-uppish things, usually in busy urban surroundings. A fine previous example was the fun they had with Leeds' former Olympic pool, reckoned to be the only building of any worth designed by the team of the corrupt Yorkshire architect John Poulson , after it had been drained prior to, regrettably, demolition. Their Manchester wheeze, which also involves a series of summery-looking temporary pavilions for artists, has been organised under the aegis of Atelier[zero] and also brought together students from Manchester school of architecture and the École Spéciale d'Architecture , curated by Jane Anderson. The little boats dodging about with intrepid Mancunians at the oars also have a vaguely Olympic connection, as part of a light-hearted 'urban sporting arena' which is part of the Cultural Olympiad. Prof Tom Jefferies, head of Manchester school of architecture, is most enthusiastic and keen to emphasise that the construction is not merely a play space but a way of helping everyone in the city to understand the connections between 'place and space.' The north west's creative programmer for London 2012 Debbi Lander also sees the boating lake as part of Manchester's very own mini-Olympic village and a stage on an 'Olympic journey across the region.' As the Northerner reported earlier this week, this could also include Liverpool's special bandstand in Williamson Square for those who want to opt out of the games, while retaining the option of nipping round the corner to watch highlights on the Big Screen. The lake will also link to Manchester's canal festival , with other highlights such as a Float-in Film Show and the world's first permanent lomography wall. Boating is available to all ages until 2 September and full details are here.