‘The Elephant in the Room’ At last serious design attention has been given to the appearance and materiality of the Retail centre itself.


Proposals were presented for the cladding of the main retail structure on its North and Eastern faces. Two strong and convincing elevations were displayed which began to convince most members of the panel that the Fletcher Priest, Westfield and DLA team were rising to the challenge. The material proposed was copper – in a semi translucent meshed form over the car parking and the spiral ramp and in panel form over the building proper. The form of the spiral entry to the car park was considered to be particularly strong. A` minority view within the panel is that the copper sheath might seem too thin and lack materiality. More detail is needed. The various loading bay openings punched through at the base of the North facing main wall emphasise the wall’s immense scale. The desirability of a complementary relationship between the huge wall of the retail centre and the even larger, already existing cliff of concrete below which lines the railway cutting below was remarked on by the panel


Less convincing and less developed were proposals for the fifth elevation – the vast roof over the complex. An overall faceted structure based on overlapping orthogonal and diagonal grids appears to be the proposal but needs much development before an interesting sketch can be turned into a practical proposition. While planting would be welcome, proposals for planting trees on skyline of the roof were judged to be picturesque but optimistic. Stratford is not Lucca.


Frank Duffy


5


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