Stockport Town Centre

RIBA Competition

Date: 2003

In our entry for this open competition to redesign Stockport Town Centre, we proposed a series of new ground surfaces to prioritise pedestrian use along two routes linking Mersey and St Peter’s Squares,  connecting to the town centre’s edge and responding to the existing dramatic topography.

A series of brightly coloured ‘hat-like’ pavilions  are proposed which locate various new and existing activities at the edges to leave the squares clear and allow civic activity of a different scale: winter ice fairs, demonstrations, summer  performance. Clusters of high poles responsive either to wind or the underground river create distinctive volumes of light at night giving the town a strong identity to passing road and rail traffic.