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Bradford Centre Regeneration

Bradford

Project Details

£50,000 to £99,999

New Build

Practice

aLL Design

aLL Design , 1 Mortimer Street , LONDON , W1T 3JA

Will Alsop's work with the Bradford Centre Regeneration team created an opportunity to let Bradford breathe with quality open space that optimises Bradford's existing fine qualities, views and built inheritance. In terms of planning, the team approached Bradford from the perspective of having not a single centre but multiple centres of interest. The team identified the many communities which comprise Bradford and give it its quality of difference. A grid of 64 x 1km squares was laid over the city in plans, and in each was found the kernel of an experience, event or activity. Suitably promoted, these squares constitute a 'new tourist map' for Bradford, providing somewhere to meet, something to see, do, sell or buy. Emphatically each will contain something that people outside the neighbourhood might want to visit. And people inside the neighbourhood can be proud of. Views and site lines are as important as actual new structures. Many of these spaces already exist and are just hidden. Bradford Bowl, renamed Bradford City Park, was completed in 2013 and is the first phase of Bradford's regeneration. It has been designed to bring jobs and prosperity to Bradford by attracting visitors and businesses into the district and helping to create the landscape for future investment. City Park is a six-acre park in the heart of Bradford and provides a vibrant public space for everyone to enjoy, comprising fountains, trees and attractive green spaces. It is an adaptable environment which is capable of holding events such as carnivals, markets, theatre productions, screenings and community festivals. The centrepiece is the Mirror Pool, which is with 4,000sq m the largest urban water feature in the UK and provides an interactive space and staggering City Centre feature. The city centre regeneration has proven to be a huge draw for locals and visitors alike, also having a measurable positive effect on community cohesion. *Phase 1 completed 2013