Teesside Retail Park : Info/cafe Building

Information/cafe building, Teesside Retail Park, Stockton on Tees 2008 Walker Bushe Architects Teesside Retail Park Building - Project description Located centrally within the car park of a large existing out of town shopping centre, the building was commissioned as a cafe and public information building that was also required to house new public toilets and local community information facilities. The building works were also to include a small children's play area located adjacent to the entrance. The brief required the building to be an attractive and lively architectural addition to the retail park that was in the process of being upgraded to attract more prestigious retailers. The building is situated on the main north-south axis of the retail park. A large scale letter ‘I’, on the highest point of the building marks the axis and signals the building’s function. The addition of decorative pulsing LED chevron signing to the rear facade directs traffic to parking on either side of the building. The building is conceived as a single storey ‘decorated shed’ with a hard external shell which is glazed on one elevation to address an outdoor seating area and small play area created within the existing dense car parking arrangement. The full height glazed southern facade faces the retail units around the perimeter of the site. The roof over-sails on this facade to shade the interior from excessive solar gain. Irregular spaced red transoms give a horizontal emphasis to the facade whilst seemingly ignoring the underlying glazing modules. The primary steel frame structure comprised portalised, cranked steel frames supported on a 300mm thick grade C35/20 reinforced concrete piled raft. The steel frames were generally spaced at 4.0m centres except at the centre of the building where the frames are spaced at 6.5m centres each side of a double storey height lobby. The steel structure clad using standard ‘Kingspan’ wall and roofing panels for economy and ease/speed of construction. A panelled roof skin was overlaid on this using a unique dimpled and blued‚ stainless steel rain-screen which has blue cast plastic blocks inset to provide decorative accent. The stainless steel rains-screen panels were supported on a secondary grid of cold-formed sections that were fixed to the cladding panels. Internally, new pendant light fittings were designed for the entrance lobby. These are made from Perspex with an applied Diachroic film coating. The fittings are suspended at differing levels and are intended to be ‘mobile’ like. A feature is made of the fluorescent tube’s starter mechanism, which is incorporated in the suspension system and housed in an etched Perspex tube. Teesside Retail Park Infocafe - Building Information Building Programme duration: 23 weeks Form of Contract: JCT IFC 2005 (Intermediate Contract with Design) Contract Sum : £945,000