Mancunian charm: Aviva Studios

Regular visitors to Manchester cannot have failed to notice the seemingly unending collection of building works that makes passing through the city centre increasingly fraught. Skyscrapers, roadworks and bold, emerging buildings are now so commonplace that it's almost as if they've always been here. If you're familiar with the Castlefield area of the city centre, you'll have noticed an unusual, modernist ‘barnacle’ emerging out of the side of a gigantic and imposing structure which now dominates the skyline.

This is the forthcoming Aviva Studios. It's the genuinely exciting and hopefully ground-breaking new offering from the Factory International, the team behind the bi-annual Manchester International Festival which has given us over a decade of world premieres by peerless and talented creatives.