Wharf Green: A New Civic Space for Swindon

Custom designed street furniture and lighting.

2 1 0

Just south of the Cotswolds, with excellent links to Reading, Bristol and London, Swindon is ideally located to be a desirable town in which to live and work. However, Swindon has not experienced the same economic growth as comparable settlements in the region. Despite attracting prestigious companies offering a wide range of employment, including the National Trust, Intel and Alcatel-Lucent Technologies, the majority of workers commute from out of town.

Swindon's town centre suffers from a limited choice of leisure, eating and cultural activities and has failed to encourage the levels of spending required to change the town's fortunes. In 2002, The New Swindon Company was founded to regenerate the heart of town and develop the local economy; take advantage of the relative affluence of its surroundings and enhance the town, making it a place to spend time and money, as well as to work.

LDA Design was appointed to assist with a number of regeneration schemes and to improve the public realm. Projects were selected for potential public sector funding to help stimulate private sector investment and we were appointed to design a square, Wharf Green, in the centre of Swindon.

Wharf Green was the first public space delivered as part of the New Swindon Company's remit. Situated at the western gateway to the retail quarter, it was run-down and dominated by a 1960s' concrete multi-storey car park and lack of active frontage addressing the space. We designed and delivered a simple, modern and uncluttered public space with high quality contemporary detailing and a restrained palette of colours, tones and textures for hard and soft elements. The car park was masked with a free standing timber architectural structure, which incorporates a large interactive BBC Big Screen, the first in southern England.

The square is now an attractive space where people can relax away from the busy shopping streets. It provides a flexible and dynamic events area in the centre and has hosted events including parts of the Swindon Festival of Literature programme and the Swindon Summer Festival. The success of Wharf Green earned Swindon Council an extra £3 million of Government growth point funding, which will help accelerate some of the proposed schemes for the town. It received a commendation at the 2009 Civic Trust Awards.