Context

Festival Place in Basingstoke is one of the UK’s top 20 shopping destinations. The 102,000sqm centre was acquired by AEW in December 2015 with a vision to modernise and create an improved shopping environment. 

Investment in the infrastructure has included the refurbishment of the 3,000 space car park, both internally and externally.

Work undertaken

Lang+Fulton worked with Bell Associates to design a new façade using STEREO-KINETIC® Wall as the cladding system, mounted on an independent steel frame which was bolted back to the existing structural steelwork.

The gradation of the stainless steel tiles was designed to allow for ventilation whilst transforming the appearance of the original car park and linking it to the new extension with one seamless frontage.

Detailed ventilation and glare studies were conducted to ensure that the project fully complied with regulations and site-specific conditions. Large areas of open grating were required to allow for the very poor air flow through the building and where the panels were mounted on the overpass, which crosses the A3010, no tiles were fixed to the bottom row of grating and the level of polishing to the tiles was reduced from 240-grit to 100-grit.

Outcome

The ambitious redevelopment plans are attracting new customers and have boosted annual footfall to 22.4 million.