PROJECT REPORT: RETAIL DEVELOPMENTS
BUILDING PROJECTS
CITY PLAZA PRIMARK STORE WUPPERTAL, GERMANY
Bold as brass
The project architect in charge of a new architecturally adventurous flagship retail store in the German city of Wuppertal explains to Jack Wooler how the practice went about revitalising a large brownfield site, and created a unique retail environment.
I
n the midst of a large urban redevelopment project in the centre of the German city of Wuppertal in North
Rhine-Westphalia, sits City Plaza, a dramatic new five-storey store for the clothing chain Primark, has uplifted a rundown district.
Set among a mix of building styles, including modern, post-war developments alongside historic architecture, and next to improved public space linking the railway station to the city, the project has been created as a striking centrepiece to a busy urban hub. The area is used by tens of thousands of rail and bus passengers every day.
Despite such a complex backdrop, project designers Chapman Taylor were not required to follow any local vernacular building styles or special regulations, allowing them the freedom to design a consciously modern and striking building, with the aim being to avoid creating a “pastiche of Wuppertal’s heritage,” as lead architect Yvonne von Salm puts it, “but rather to add to the city’s build legacy with a new layer, firmly rooted in the present.” Through this artistic licence, the architects have formed a distinctive curved, undulating facade, clad with alternating brass panels and glass curtain walling, lifting the area’s look and feel alongside the major ongoing works in the surrounding public realm.
The contract
It has taken six years in order to get to this point however, as von Salm explains. She tells ADF that in 2014, the City of Wuppertal launched its largest post-war urban renewal project to date – the
redevelopment of the down-at-heel district around the railway station. The City of Wuppertal orchestrated a competition to develop the brownfield land here, with the process requiring interested investors to put in a financial offer for the site, supported by an architectural proposal. Says Yvonne: “Based on the financial strength of the investor, Signature Capital, and the architectural quality of the proposal, the City then selected us as the winning team to design the area’s regeneration.”
Having worked with Signature Capital elsewhere, they were asked in this instance if they would be interested in developing an existing urban design scheme for the wider site, which was created by another firm.
Complications
After winning the contract, the architects were presented with a series of challenges, beginning with the site, which required complex and expensive works before undergoing the building’s actual construction.
Once construction started, one such early challenge for the project was that the site sits on solid rock, which had to be dynamited to allow for an underground level of car parking, service access and other facilities. “This was a time consuming, expensive, and tricky process,” tells Yvonne.
Another site challenge that followed this was to redesign the connection between the railway station and the city centre. “The railway station was previously severed from the city centre by a dual carriageway, and pedestrians had to walk through an unwelcoming underpass,” says Yvonne.
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PANEL INTRICACIES
Each brass panel within the undulating curved facade has to be individually designed, and each had its own pattern of perforations
Images (above and facing page) © Cloud 9 Photography
If it wasn’t for our BIM capabilities, it might not have been possible
ADF FEBRUARY 2020
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