BULLRING

The Bullring, Birmingham has been the heart of the city for hundreds of years and therefore has been revitalised a number of times throughout history.

 

The Bullrings history begins with a small marketplace in 1166 in St Martins Church green (Baird, 2004). It was seen as a revolutionary partially-covered market rid of many health concerns. Then, the Bullrings purpose was to bait the bulls to tenderise meat for said market (Bullring Birmingham Nostalgia Birmingham Nostalgia, 2014). These elements created an historic heart of the city which was later demolished for the 1964 redevelopment. This design, as seen in Figure 28 boasts of a futuristic open stage element, ‘late spring time’ heating and a fully covered experience alongside the traditional marketplace named to be ‘much easier to get at’ (British Pathé, 2014), revolutionary for the time.

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Now consisting of 160 retail outlets and a 3100 car park capacity, Benoy’s contemporary version of the 100,000m sq. shopping centre was opened in 2003 (Limited, 2017). 35 million people visit the centre annually and the integration of the new design with the community and environment has only enhanced this (ICSC: International Council of Shopping Centers, 2016).

 

In terms of proportions a large void through each floor, increasing the vertical proportions to 4 storeys supports the cognitive development of our primitive minds attracting the user to high buildings (Stamps, 2005). Not only this but a light well is created as the glass roof illuminates the spaces with natural light. This element can be seen on each level, as shown in the diagrams in Figure 29 and 30 and further proves proportionally the psychological relationship is vertical compared to linear (Lindal and Hartig, 2013a, p. 28) and that visual permeability is necessary for a design to be convincing in persuading the user to be comfortable and/move. Other than recessed spotlights positioned in a linear formation the main light source is from the roof. Like Westfield, Benoy have continued with this concept when designing the Bullring. The ‘floating Skyplane roof’ (Benoy, 2017a) (Figure 31) mimics an open air environment and like Westfield, had an immediate impact on the participants on arrival. This made the space appear more ‘open’ (Participant B) giving the space a ‘calming atmosphere’ (Participant A). The designer has drawn on these methods and Kolters (1973) idea to ‘elicit an emotional effect’ straight away, consequently causing a directional effect manipulating the users to progress vertically through the building towards the light.   

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Even though sound and light are ‘not independent of each other’ (Ge and Hokao, 2005, p. 456) neither of the participants expressed comments about the sound within this environment. The influence over them did not appear to be as strong as in Westfield. This may be due to the fact that the space itself is large and open, therefore affecting the qualities of artificial sound as noted by Tokunaga (2013) (Galiana, Llinares, and Page, 2016). In addition to this the immediately apparent connection Benoy have created with the outside city is enhanced as the user can hear the city as the multiple entrances are opened, literally bringing the outside city into the building, creating a natural comfortable environment. This means that the user does not feel trapped within the space and is likely to spend more time.

 

The designer appears to have created a space that is comfortable yet equally confusing. The difficulty with integration with the city is that the spatial layout becomes very intricate (Binford, 2014), especially when responding to a sloped typography. This can be seen through the observational experiment (Figure 33) where both participants spent a considerable amount of time circulating around the entire centre, however did not follow a simplistic route. In fact, Participant B noticeably back tracks multiple times in his journey (See Figure 33). This is especially seen as he progresses to higher floors where the spatial layout becomes more complex. The intricacy of this layout combined with the change in scenery due to outside spaces and shortcuts causes disorientation and decreases spatial awareness and this is why Participant B repeats circulating through parts of the building.   

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Symbols within the space have been left very modern-minimal, avoiding iconology (Venturi et al., 1977c, p. 7), enhancing the natural beauty and the designers’ concept of connecting to the city. This therefore leaves focus drawn to the symbolism of the corporate brands and our own opinion of each (Wallin Andreassen and Lindestad, 1998). However, in terms of literal signs, symbols within the Bullring are quite hidden, perhaps to put emphasis on the natural element further, but this made it difficult for Participant B to find amenities on route at points (See Figure 33).

 

As designers Benoy had a clear brief to connect the leisure structure with the outer city. As an overall judgement it appears that this has been completed, however in regards to manipulative methods in place it seems that proportion and light are integrated well within the building to persuade users to move up through the whole building, eventually leading to the top floor which largely connects to the outside. Other methods, have not been implemented, or as well as they could have been, for example symbols, including necessary ones (i.e. toilet signage) have possibly been integrated too well to be noticed in the first place.