Case study:
The Gap
Shrewsbury
Commercial, Master Planning, Mixed Use
This project sits on a unique, heavily-shaded ‘gap’ site between two shopping centres in Shrewsbury Town Centre.
Overview
This project on a unique, heavily-shaded ‘gap’ site between two shopping centres in Shrewsbury Town Centre, sought to gain planning permission for a nine-storey mixed-use residential and office scheme, the design for which had to be sensitive to both flooding issues and the local historical context.
The brief was to maximise the viability of the site whilst ensuring that the layout allowed natural light to penetrate deeply into the scheme. The principle was to first establish a balance between the parts of the site that were unusable for any habitable purpose given existing flooding and light issues.
Once these areas had been determined the design was then modelled to examine the potential forms that would allow sunlight into most of the rest of the spaces.
What We Did
We chose local materials such as brick and stone which were matched with significant properties within Shrewsbury.
The final form was a double-core of built form which stood at the same height as surrounding properties and resulted in nine storeys of residential and office space with associated car parking.
The site partly floods, and a flood zone was incorporated into the design for this reason. A viewing platform was also created in order to allow part of the medieval town wall of Shrewsbury to be observed from within the site.
The result
The completed design drew upon the architectural precedents set within the river loop of Shrewsbury and interpreted a contemporary architectural language.
This resulted in the creation of a 40-apartment scheme, with 6 office spaces and a linked walkway between Shrewsbury’s Pride Hill and the Riverside. Sufficient lower level car parking was included to cater to all the uses above it. The design also considered the BigTown Plan for Shrewsbury and looked to address not only the existing local environment but also the anticipated changes to the local context that will arise in future decades.
The resulting design addresses the immediate demands of the site as well as other relevant planning considerations whilst delivering the most viable form of development that could be accommodated in this challenging ‘gap’ site.
