CABE warns against 'out of town' retail developments

The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) has today (Thursday) warned architects, planners and developers against replicating 'out of town' retail developments in the centre of towns and cities.

In his speech at MIPIM in France, chief executive Jon Rouse welcomed the growing awareness among funders and retail developers of the merits and commercial value of good urban design.

However, he added that a number of challenges still face large retail developments in towns and cities.

These include: understanding the context and the different sets of constraints for centre development; accepting the site constraints and working with them rather than forcing the standard response; breaking down the tendency towards the megablock and large retail floorplates; working to a masterplan and working with a variety of architectural practices within a single scheme; and bringing in landscape architects and artists at the early stages of the design.

Rose added: "While we have moved a long way from the design disasters of the past, like the original BullRing development in Birmingham and the monolith at Elephant and Castle, our architects, planners and developers still face major challenges in developing retail spaces in our town and city centres.

"We should take heart from recent retail designs, such as Northgate in Chester and The Oracle in Reading, which have met the design challenges as well as satisfied the commercial aims of the developers."