Tuesday, 29 August 2006 | Levent OZLER
Stylish Town Centre Seating Unveiled for Castleford
Stylish prototype furniture designed to take the leg work out of shopping in Castleford's new £1.1m town square, has been unveiled.
The furniture, designed by Hudson Architects with Leeds based manufacturers City Squared Ltd, is a key part of the town centre redevelopment scheme, which is currently underway.
The scheme has been funded by Wakefield Council, Yorkshire Forward and the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.
The development of Castleford town square is part of The Castleford Project, the World's first televised regeneration project. The Project is led by Wakefield Council with Channel 4, regeneration agencies and the community. This is the eighth of 11 schemes to go on site and represents the second phase of improvements to the town centre. Work began in 2005 with the relocation of the outdoor market from behind Carlton Lanes shopping centre, improving visibility of the market and invigorating market trade.
In collaboration with the artist Pierre Vivant, Hudson Architects have designed a public square at the heart of the town, making the area more pleasant for all those who visit and trade. The framework for the square is a circle, which extends from the commercial centre in concentric waves into the wider environs of Castleford. The circle is defined by granite paving, the curved threshold of which intersects the orthogonal grid of the existing street plan. The granite paving is bisected by a lattice of white granite lines, which reflect the profiles of the surrounding buildings. Pierre Vivant is working on the design and development of a sculpture, which will sit at the centre of the granite paving as the main focal point of the square.
City Squared Ltd and Hudson Architects have designed and produced two types of lightweight durable benches and swivel seating for the square. Individual seats are arranged along a central granite strip. The benches slot in to the granite framework and can be repositioned and locked into place at the clients' leisure.
Chair of Castleford Town Centre Partnership and Wakefield Councillor Mark Burns-Williamson welcomed the new seating saying, "It is exciting to see the new square take shape and the arrival of our stylish new town centre seating marks are important milestone on the way to seeing the whole area completely transformed".
Project Details
Client: Wakefield Metropolitan District Council
Gross floor area: 2,000 sqm
Design Team
Architect: Hudson Architects
Project Architect: Rahesh Ram
Artist: Pierre Vivant
Contractors: CR Reynolds (Construction) Limited
Services Engineer: Wakefield Metropolitan District Council Highways Department
Hudson Architects
Founded in 2001 by Anthony Hudson, Hudson Architects is an award-winning architecture and design practice based in London and Norfolk, currently designing a wide range of highly creative projects in the UK for clients as diverse as community groups, private individuals, urban development consortia and commercial developers.
In addition to the Castleford Project, current urban regeneration projects include the design of a £1m new-build Managed Workspace in the first phase of Haringey Council's ambitious Tottenham High Road Regeneration Programme.
In the housing sector, Hudson Architects have set new standards in domestic architectural design, with award winning projects including the Baggy House, Devon and the Drop House, Hertfordshire. The practice is now applying this expertise to challenge the retrogressive nature of the majority of British house builders, by introducing innovative construction methods, as exemplified in the latest private residential project, the Cedar House (2005), which was nominated for RIBA East Award 2006. The practice is also actively involved in the creative re-use of rural agricultural buildings, converting barns into modern dwellings using lo-tech sustainable technology appropriate to their rural context. This summer the practice was appointed by Premier Homes to design a 70-unit mixed-use residential scheme on a brown field site in the centre of Norwich.
Hudson Architects: http://www.dexigner.com/directory/detail/8151/
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