The much maligned Bull Ring, built during the mistake that was the 1960's, has always been the butt of many a joke which, when coupled with Spaghetti Junction, placed Birmingham firmly at the top of the 'ugliest major city in Britain' list. By the 1980's Birmingham had little to offer in terms of the burgeoning growth of new generation retailers and department stores. The Bull Ring was tired and jaded, and the city had only one department store.
Now Bullring (note the fashionable change to one word) marks a new era of retail-led regeneration for British cities with the controversial Future Systems' Selfridges building forming the fulcrum of the project. At 11,000 sqm, and occupying a 26-acre site, Bullring is not only one of the largest retail developments to have been delivered in Europe for over a decade with 146 units, it is also the first time a scheme of this scale has been built in a city centre. Contrary to much media opinion, I like it.
The nine level scheme sits right at the heart of Birmingham's traditional and historic centre for retail and trade. Bullring's nine levels comprise three principal retail malls - with the upper level containing a first floor, and a lower level containing a mezzanine - two levels of car parking situated directly below the scheme, one level dedicated to the scheme's centre management suite and plant and machinery contained within the remaining levels.
Birmingham's historic street pattern was a major influence on Bullring's design. The scheme is composed of three axes, two of which form a natural extension to the city's principal shopping streets of New Street and High Street. Between the two, the third axis comprising St Martin's Walk, a new pedestrianised boulevard, restores historic linkages to the city's traditional markets beyond St Martin's church.
The vision of Birmingham Alliance (a partnership between Hammerson plc, Henderson Global Investors Ltd and Land Securities Group PLC) was to provide Birmingham with the best of continental Europe. Bullring's streetscape atmosphere has provided a feeling reminiscent of European cities. Boulevards, squares and the types of spaces which promote an active street life have been combined to set a new model for retail-led inner city regeneration. Bullring has revitalised an historic city quarter, while creating an exciting new public forum for people to meet, eat, shop and relax in a contemporary environment.
Designed by concept architects Benoy, with detailed design implementation provided by Chapman Taylor, Bullring has been conceived as a series of malls, open spaces, covered streets and public piazzas - with the two department stores, Debenhams and Selfridges, providing an anchor on each side of the scheme.
The natural gradient of the site - falling some 19.5 metres from north to south - has been integrated into Bullring's design so that each trading level has access to a ground floor entrance, and allows for the three retail levels to step down the slope either side of St Martin's Walk.
Externally, the slopes of St Martin's Walk and St Martin's Square give dramatic views of the retail outlets and have been enhanced by terraces down either side of St Martin's Walk, culminating in a major viewing terrace at the end of the street overlooking St Martin's Church.
St Martin's Square has been designed to provide sufficient space around the church, allowing it to 'breath' and form a significant meeting place independent of the Bullring. Cafes and restaurants line the southern edges of the square and at night, dramatic feature lighting enhances both the church and public spaces.
Lighting design company for the landscaped area of the Bullring was DPA whose main task was to avoid street clutter whilst integrating all the parts to create a holistic experience. They have succeeded with a brilliant scheme that provides a stimulating and safe environment with plenty of surprises to keep visitors amused.
One of the more dramatic spaces is St Martin's Square where Selfridges and St Martin's Church vie for position. The large area in between needed to be strong and, in achieving this goal, Gross Max (the landscape architects) and DPA have created a welcoming gathering place that is fully utilised in the evening.
Looking east across St. Martin's Square towards Selfridges, the giant terraces are illuminated from recessed linear fluorescent luminaires (iGuzzini Linealuce) inset into the vertical upstands providing a strong linear delineation when viewed from below, and defining the terraces from above by washing the horizontal terraces. The steps down through the 'giant terraces' are highlighted by handrail integrated UFO fibre-optic down-lighting. Beyond, the canopy to the terrace above the retail block is uplit utilising CDM projectors (Meyer/CLS) with the glass block corners of the tower at the junction with Selfridges internally illuminated by cold cathode from Oldham Lighting. In fact, Oldham Lighting has supplied some 3,000m of cold cathode lighting to a variety of areas at the Bullring picking out architectural features as well as supplementing general lighting, particularly in areas where access for maintenance is difficult.
In the general areas of the Bullring, 1,000m of low voltage cold cathode has been installed by Oldham in conjunction with Hills Electrical throughout the malls, as well as on the underbellies of escalators, where deep shadows would otherwise detract from the light and airy feel of the space.
Along the terrace at the bottom of Central Street, towards Selfridges in-ground linear fluorescent luminaires (iGuzzini Linealuce) define the junction between ramp and step. Discreet wall mounted projectors (iGuzzini Woody) provide controlled illumination to the perimeter immediately in front of the retail units.
The ramp wall between Selfridges and St Martin's Church is illuminated by in-ground fibre optic uplights from UFO. Beyond the terrace is downlights from IP rated luminaires (Troll/Lucent) with the terrace facia backlit by 8,400K, cool temperature cold cathode with opal glass diffusers from ALS. Beyond the Terrace the Water Features (Gross Max) are internally illuminated glass boxes, lined with colour Perspex and Martin Exterior 200 colour changers (supplied by AC Lighting). The giant terraces are located beyond the water features, behind which the elevation enclosing St Martin's Square features internally illuminated windows utilising three AC/DC colour cold cathode luminaires providing a colour change sequence via a Lutron Grafik Eye. The pergola to the terrace is highlighted by AR111 exterior luminaires with beam shaping glass lenses from Mike Stoane Lighting.
From Rotunda Square looking down Central Street towards St Martin's Church, Peter Fink's 'Light Wands' sculpture incorporates AC/DC LED domelights in clusters around each of the polished stainless steel 'leaves' and LED projectors located within the 'tips' providing internal illumination, each wand and its lighting being colour co-ordinated. Additional low voltage projectors are concealed within the base 'cones' of the 'wands providing back illumination to the inset perspex strips and concentration of colour at the base. Above each of the two retail units the upper walls are washed with three colour cold cathode luminaires (AC/DC) providing a colour change sequence.
Looking back up Central Street towards Rotunda Square, with the retail crossing in the foreground, in-ground LED luminaires (LEC Lyon) have two colours, green and yellow, depending on ones orientation. The retail windows are a major contributor to the general ambience, with dedicated illumination provided into the 'Street' from catenary assemblies (iGuzzini Woody in bespoke frames) suspended overhead.
One of the more dramatic features of Bullring's design is its spectacular 7,000 sqm 'skyplane' roof. This virtually invisible expanse of glass forms a 'floating' cover over Bullring's seemingly 'open' malls, to give the impression of a natural extension of the city's key shopping streets, while linking them to the two department stores.
And this is where we turn to now already infamous Selfridges. Designed by Future Systems, the building has been described as anything from a "curvaceous caterpillar" (The Observer) to a "blue blancmange with chicken pox" (The Architectural Review). Whatever your opinion there can be no doubt that it is an audacious achievement and what's more, this example of 'blob architecture' really comes into its own at night. Projectors were selected by Des O'Donovan at DHA Design to creatively floodlight the building by using 38 of Sill Lighting's 494 series luminaire. The powerful projectors wash the building with controlled, blue light, highlighting the 15,000 spun aluminium discs (apparently inspired by a Paco Rabanne dress) that clad the building. The projectors are mounted four per column on existing street light columns, each with a BLV 400W blue metal halide lamp and an adjustable anti-glare louvre. The scheme was assisted by computer calculations from Sill's Relux software, ensuring accurate light levels and distribution was achieved.
Inside, it has to be said that the design is not so successful, possibly suffering from Selfridges' ongoing policy of employing different designers for each floor. In this case, the designers were Eldridge Smerin, Stanton Williams, Aldo Cibic/Lees Associates and Future Systems. It also suffers from the apparent trend of leaving ceilings exposed to all sorts of piping and ducts which gives it the feeling of some huge, low cost, American wholesale store, not one of the most prestigious department stores in the country.
Nevertheless, DHA Design has made a spirited attempt at dealing with the situation and, in any case, many of their designs were overlooked due to factors out of their control. It would take an article in its own right to cover everything that is going on in terms of lighting design here but, suffice to say, there are some good ideas to point out - none more so than the use of Encapsulite T5 fluorescent Stick-Lites throughout the store.
ERCO also became involved to provide the engineering solution to meet the requirements of the contractors Hayden Young. A new fully automated manufacturing/warehousing and distribution network enabled an extremely short lead-time which meant Hayden Young finishing on schedule.
The solution consists of 3c track with ERCO's TM Spotlight's using metal halide lamps; recessed Gimbal fittings, including a custom made version with a square housing and Lightcast directional luminaires.
Debenhams also has some good and bad points but the best point is most definitely the central atrium which, like Selfridges, is a stunning centrepiece. 2,000m of Oldham's Prodigy cold cathode product, a low voltage, high output fully dimmable system, has been installed by the company in conjunction with JB Electrical and Bernard Engles Architects, in Debenhams. Here, it has been used to highlight the features of the atrium, as well as for perimeter lighting and to light the escalator wells, providing continuous lines with no breaks or shadows. This has been combined with 23sqm of System Tread load bearing, illuminated glass floor from Arc Lighting, innovators in illuminated glass surfaces.
So there you have it. Sure, there are some problems and I do believe that the interior of Selfridges will need to be remodelled in order to keep its customers. The building though, will become a tourist attraction and there aren't many shops (apart from Harrods) that can claim that. The bullish Bullring is here to stay with enough about it to keep visitors happy ever after. It will, I think, be a huge success and will reinforce Birmingham's stance as the second city to all those that have publicly sneered. Brum is back on the map.