Inclusivity and beyond

Never one to shy away from controversy, Wayne Hemingway caused a stir when he went on the warpath over the design of shopping centres. Elizabeth Donevan reports.

THE rigid design of the UK’s shopping spaces is stunting entrepreneurial spirit and wasting the potential for schemes to play a role in communities and influence social behaviour, according to designer Wayne Hemingway. He says our European counterparts can teach us a lot about how to design the shopping places of the future.

In a tirade of criticism similar to the one he launched at the house builder George Wimpey in 2001, Wayne Hemingway has targeted developers in his attack on badly designed shopping centres and developers’ ignorance of the role they could play in enhancing social stability and progress.

Speaking at the BCSC Conference and Showcase in Gateshead, Hemingway said shopping centres could play a much greater role in society beyond just acting as a vessel for retailers. The successful designer and cofounder of HemingwayDesign, which specialises in affordable and social design, told the conference that shopping centres have a social responsibility and should move away from the “clone town” and lacklustre designs.

Hemingway criticised those behind the building of the Trafford Centre for failing to realise the potential of creating a forward thinking, mixed-use scheme that would give something back to its community in Greater Manchester. He said: “To me a residential
development with retail attached is a nobrainer. We are allowed to build up now so we should take advantage of that. The Trafford Centre could have been a truly mixed-use development. It could do so much more, it could have added another dimension.”

Conference delegate and Trafford Centre director of operations, Gordon McKinnon, referred to the Trafford Centre’s iconic design, opulent architecture and grand structures in his response. He said: “The first centre that you chose to condemn was the first centre to dare to do something different 10 years ago. The Trafford Centre doesn’t pretend to appeal to architectural purists.”

McKinnon referred to the 30 million visitors that flock to the Trafford Centre every year. However, Hemingway likened its popularity to that of the Daily Mail.

“It’s not about architecture, it’s about soul! Yes, it appeals to a decent amount of people. But I wouldn’t say the Daily Mail is the most powerful of newspapers because of the sheer number of readers.”

Hemingway flew the flag for independent retailers, when he said: “It worries me that the opportunity for young people to start a retail business like my wife and I did in the early 1980s is becoming damn nigh impossible for young people today with the increasing demand for covenants and the cloning of once off-pitch streets. You are forcing people to the Internet. If I was starting Red or Dead again, the Internet would be my only option.”

Making waves
From a stall on Camden Market, Hemingway, with his wife Gerardine, built Red or Dead into a label that received global acclaim resulting in winning the prestigious British Fashion Council Streetstyle Designer of the Year Award for an unprecedented three consecutive years in 1996, 1997 and 1998.

They formed HemingwayDesign in 1999 and have been involved in the master planning, architecture, landscaping and marketing of a number of developments ever since.

Citing successful mixed-use examples in Copenhagen, Malmö, Hammerby Sjöberg and Stockholm, Hemingway said shopping centres can be creative in their design and therefore give back to the community. He said: “Shopping centres and retailers have a duty to the town. They need to look at the bigger picture and think beyond the design of the building. They have a role to play in the community and a social responsibility.”

Hemingway compared the challenge for retail developers to the one he took on with George Wimpey in 2001 after he criticised the company in a typically outspoken newspaper article on the “Wimpeyfication” and “Barrattisation” of Britain’s homes. Rather than taking legal action against Hemingway, George Wimpey challenged HemingwayDesign to help build a development on a brownfield site and change the perceptions of a Wimpey home.

The result is the flagship low carbon, bicycle friendly Staiths South Bank mass market housing project on Tyneside that has won a series of high profile awards including a Housing Design Award for the best large project, a Building For Life accreditation and the highest rating of any large-scale scheme in a CABE audit.

He says: “We wanted to create serendipity but keep the housing affordable and at the same time create public spaces for the local residents. In design and in strategic development, the biggest danger is forgetting the client – the community.

“Design isn’t just a fluffy thing, we research everything like crazy! We had heard a statistic that over 70% of potential buyers wouldn’t want to look at houses built by the top five house builders. We thought that was absurd. We told George Wimpey that we would bring a brand new demographic to their housing and we brought in a younger entrepreneurial crowd. Now 85% of the buyers are under 35.

“We have completely reversed their demographic and shopping centres can do that too. They can appeal to the usual customers but they can also appeal to people like me who are completely disenfranchised by what they do.”

Regeneration game
As part of the Staiths South Bank project, Hemingway introduced tennis tables in the streets and a barbecue for every household. Other housing projects underway include a new settlement of 3,000 homes in Lothian and a city centre affordable apartment regeneration in Manchester’s Northern Quarter called The Birchin. Working with George Wimpey and Broadway Malayan,HemingwayDesign has also worked on the masterplan for one of the first Thames Gateway schemes in Dartford and won against stiff opposition.

“It was a fresh way of looking at houses and we need a fresh way of looking at shopping centres.”

Hemingway said developers are letting communities down by limiting their focus to very small sites.

“I was asked to do a presentation to show that we had all of the ingredients for Salford to rival Manchester,” he said. “I knew I could talk about the new Media City creating 4,500 jobs, and there are iconic buildings on the Quays to talk of. But by chance I got off at Salford Crescent rather than Piccadilly once and I started to take pictures. There were no signs to say where Salford Quays was, just a “beware of pickpockets” sign. You can feel threatened there amongst dirty water and old gypsy camps, but you are a stone’s throw from where all of this regeneration is taking place.”

“Stuff your iconic buildings! Why would people want to live in that shithole? That’s why we have to look at the wider centre and shopping centres have the money to do that. They have a definite role to play in stability and social progress and they should stop ignoring that.”

He credited Newcastle and Gateshead for the level of regeneration taking place in the centre of the city and suggested retailers should respect the achievements so far with well designed retail outlets.

“The Baltic Millennium Bridge is a wonderful prize-winning structure. And this part of Gateshead is starting to look fantastic. So if Tesco wants to build a new store here, they should be told to design a store that will win a Stirling prize – anything less and they are failing Gateshead.”

Whitehaven felt the brunt of Hemingway’s attack too. Working with Copeland Borough Council and the North West Development Agency, HemingwayDesign is working on a vision for Whitehaven, in Cumbria, a town suffering from the large-scale loss of jobs
resulting from the decommissioning of Sellafield Nuclear Power Plant.

He said, “There are three routes into Whitehaven and what you are met with on every one is almost enough to make you want to turn back round again. These buildings are not old so they don’t have that excuse, but the design is awful and these shops are responsible for the first impressions of this place.”

Hemingway clearly loathed mass housing and the so called “noddy village”. So much so he took on a commendable challenge and achieved results that have gone some way in challenging the status quo of mass-market housing. Whether the voicing of his concerns
about mass retail and badly designed centres will have the same impact on the future of shopping centres and mixed-use schemes is yet to be seen. But developers and designers will want to avoid becoming the target of his next controversial rant.