Technology never fails to amaze us and if you’ve been paying attention to AI and what people are doing with it for fun at the moment, you might have seen people asking it what cities will look like in the future — naturally, Manchester is one of them.
While there are obviously endless different uses for artifical intelligence, not to mention multiple different automated programmes that can create these kind of automated impressions of the future, the People’s Postcode Lottery chose the ‘Midjourney’ AI tool to create theirs.
The lottery company and UK charity asked the AI system to re-imagine the city centre in 100 years time and, we’ll tell you now, the Manchester of the future is looking pretty cool.
Here’s what it reckons Oxford Road and what we can only guess is a generic street in town will look like in the year 2123:
Like any of these programmes, Midjourney harvests existing data and images surrounding Manchester and what the city centre looks like at present when calculating how it could be transformed in the years to come — it certainly looks like it got the rain-soaked streets right in the left image, anyway.
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Commenting on the AI images and the potential the city already has, Chris Lawson — Managing Director and Senior Designer at CK Architectural — said: “With a good vertical emphasis, [Manchester] can add retail space, a great outlook for the future, and not rely on larger floor areas.
“Introducing a section of greenery could give a level of decarbonisation and biodiversity too. This is something that I am a firm believer will have to lead future architecture in cityscapes just like this one, so I do understand the AI inspiration here. Within the Oxford Road image, the elongated glass and mirrored structures do feel like a step into the future.
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“The curved mirrors would help bring sunlight and energy to typically shaded places in cities… This is of course not to forget reflecting and enhancing the exciting historic buildings that make the fabric of this city. Creating a solid harmony of modern and traditional architecture will be the future of most major UK cities.” All that being said, Piccadilly Gardens seems like a bit of a stretch.
It’s fair to say Piccadilly Gardens is quite a ways off looking like this…
Obviously, it goes without saying that there isn’t much substance to these images beyond how much stock you put in AI and it’s creative capacities, but you have to admit the architectural imagery it has come up with seems fairly plausible.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen technology and art come together to give us an idea of the what our city might look like in years to come, of course, with a digital artist doing something similar with Adobe earlier this year.
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In fact, even looking at how the Manchester skyline has developed over the years is something we find mind-blowing enough, and if there ever-growing sea of cranes and soon-to-be-skyscrapers is anything to go by, some parts of town could look unrecognisable in the next few years.
The UK’s biggest fashion thrift market returns to Manchester this weekend
Emily Sergeant
A huge pop-up fashion fair full of vintage, pre-loved, and small business clothing is back in Manchester this weekend.
Clothes Cycle is the UK’s biggest curated second-hand clothing market.
With a focus on championing sustainable clothing and helping fashion fans find a gem they’ll treasure forever, each pop-up market organised by the student-led initiative sees dozens of carefully-curated sellers offering a wide range of styles and items – including plus-sized, gender-neutral, male and female – come together all under one roof.
Taking over the unique space inside the historic Victoria Baths this Sunday (12 May), Clothes Cycle will welcome more than 100 different sellers showcasing everything from bargain vintage finds and designer pieces, to pre-loved wardrobes and picks from local small businesses.
Organisers say the Manchester event will be a combination of in-person thrift shopping, a filtered car boot sale, and the best of sustainable high street stores.
Sellers on the day will be offering up something for everyone on every budget.
With plenty of bargains under £5 up for grabs, you can expect to find vintage clothing of all kinds, alongside the best of streetwear, y2k, retro, archive pieces, luxury brands, current trends, and handmade clothing if you head down on the day, as well as bags, shoes, jewellery, and lots of other accessories.
The UK’s biggest fashion thrift market returns to Manchester this weekend / Credit: Clothes Cycle Markets
If that wasn’t enough, there’ll also be vendors selling home decor, art and prints, greeting cards, plants, ceramics, and so much more, as well as tooth gem and nail art stalls to get involved with.
There’ll even be three DJs blasting out tunes in various rooms throughout the day.
And if all that shopping gets you a bit peckish, there’ll even be some of the city’s best-loved independent street food vendors pitching up to serve a wide range of mouthwatering grub – including pizza, burgers, dumplings, gyros, streak sandwiches, and ice cream, alongside freshly-brewed coffee, and other alcoholic drinks and cocktails.
Clothes Cycle is coming to Victoria Baths in Manchester on Sunday 12 May from 11am-5pm, and tickets are now on sale from £5 online or on the door – with several concessions and VIP ticket options also available.
Lead singer of Aussie band blasts mystery Manc café for rude and ‘aggressive’ treatment by staff member
Danny Jones
The lead singer of Australian indie and alternative band, The Buoys, has come out to criticise a mystery Manchester café after receiving rude and ‘aggressive’ treatment from a member of staff.
Lead vocalist and rhythm guitar player, Zoe Catterall, hopped on the band’s TikTok account to vent and indirectly inform others about the as-yet-unnamed coffee shop ahead of the group’s show at Gorilla in the city centre this week.
Noting that much of her family originates from Manchester and she usually gets “excited” by the “sense of home” away from home whenever she comes here on tour, her visit this time around was sadly marred somewhat by the treatment by one unknown member of staff.
As Catterall details in the video, despite going out of her way to be polite and familiarise herself with a new city centre spot as a tourist, she was unfortunately met by the purportedly blunt female worker, who “rolled her eyes” at a simple question and a general rude demeanour. Here’s how she says it went down:
Admitting she “was not expecting the response that I got”, she goes on to detail the woman finger-pointing and exhibiting just a generally rude tone.
Initially suspecting that she might be holding up a queue or irking the staff in some other way, she eventually goes on to describe her behaviour as “being an arsehole for no reason” and reiterating that you “don’t have to be that mean”.
Adding that she was welling up and feeling overwhelmed by the whole incident after a jet-lagged morning without any breakfast or caffeine in her system yet, she eventually felt so uncomfortable that she decided to grab her coffee and go decompress elsewhere.
Moreover, after explaining that she ended up going on to the café’s Google reviews out of curiosity, it turned out that the Manchester spot had racked up quite a few people who also had negative experiences and rude or ‘aggressive’ treatment by staff.
We’re not going to join in on the speculation but the comments have some ideas.
To Zoe and anyone else who may have unfortunately been on the receiving end of this rude individual’s service, we’re sorry you had to put up with that and we assure you it doesn’t represent the majority of Manchester hospitality.
And for those trying to help get to the bottom of who the mystery Manc coffee shop/employee was, we hope it serves as a kick up the backside for whoever it may be and a reminder that it takes virtually nothing to be nice.
All that being said, we can’t think of any better way of helping Zoe and co. shrug it off besides plugging their gig supporting fellow Aussie alt-rockers Vacations at one of our favourite venues on Thursday night.
If you fancy going along you can grab a ticket HERE. Oh, and if you think you know which Manchester café might be, don’t go and be rude to anyone yourself – we’re better than that. We’re sure they’ll come across it themselves soon enough, don’t worry.