Walsall Waterfront by Will Alsop
Walsall, UK, Date of completion: 2007
In December 2006 SMC Alsop won Planning Permission for the first phase of its strategic framework plan for the 17 acre site in Walsall, right in the heart of the West Midlands.
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Walsall Waterfront is the hinge between busy Park Street, Walsall's main thoroughfare and shopping street and significant living and working communities to the west of the town centre.
It is envisioned that a series of architectural gems will be interspersed within a quality public realm featuring a diversity of rich spaces. The bespoke landscape design acts as the 'glue' merging these individual components into one coherent entity.
Positioned either side of the canal, the largely residential Oysters are so called because of their distinctive curved shells. Conceived as a single object sliced through by the canal to protect views along its length, the buildings face each other across the canal with sheer square elevations of patterned curtain walling.
Nine levels of mixed unit residential apartments sit above a double height ground level, each level changing profile to achieve the curved rear elevations. Ground levels are ideally suited to bar/restaurant use, though some retail, office and leisure might also be possible.
The buildings are constructed from concrete frames with patterned black glazing to the front elevations and black and white striped composite cladding panels interspersed with full height glazing and glass sliding doors to the rear. Each floor has a balcony along its curved length. These balconies are divided by mesh clad portal frames carrying coloured Plexiglas fins which articulate the curvature of the buildings.
Raised 9m above the Event Square beneath it, four levels of office accommodation sit on vertical stilts forming a sheltered public space at ground. The building is a parallelogram in plan with a black and white pixellated curtain wall cladding containing solid and glazed units some of which are openable.
At ground, a small glass enclosure gives access to a pair of solid clad lift shafts rising up through the building.