Selfridges store clad in 15,000 shiny aluminium discs Birmingham Bullring west Midlands England UK 116771_Birmingham
Bullring Shopping Centre was master planned and designed mainly by Benoy. The shopping centre consists of two main buildings (East and West Mall) which are connected by an underground passage lined with shops and is also accessible from St Martin's Square via glass doors. The doors to both wings from New Street can be removed when crowds get large and queues develop at the doors. This feature also allows cars for display to be driven into the building. They are sheltered by a glass roof known as the SkyPlane which covers 7,000 square metres and appears to have no visible means of support. The two malls are different internally in design. The balustrades in the East Mall consist of integrated glass 'jewels' within the metal framework, and are of different colours formed through polyester powder coating. Touchscreen computers, developed by Calm Digital, are located throughout the building which allow a user to search for the location of a certain store or browse a map of the complex. It features a dramatic landmark building, housing a branch of Selfridges department store to a design by the Future Systems architectural practice. The store is clad in 15,000 shiny aluminium discs and was inspired by a Paco Rabanne sequinned dress. The Selfridges store cost £60 million and the contractor was Laing O'Rourke. Covering an area of 25,000 square metres , the designs for the Selfridges store were first unveiled in 1999, not long before demolition of the original shopping centre began. The Selfridges store has won eight awards including the RIBA Award for Architecture 2004 and Destination of the Year Retail Week Awards 2004. There is a multi-storey car park opposite Selfridges on Park Street which is connected to the Selfridges store via a 37 metre long, curved, polycarbonate-covered footbridge, known as the Parametric Bridge, suspended over the street. On the ground floor of the building is a modern furniture showroom.
Size: 4752px × 3226px
Location: Selfridges Birmingham bullring west Midlands England UK
Photo credit: © DV TRAVEL / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: aluminium, architecture, award, birmingham, blue, bull, bullring, center, centre, city, commercial, discs, disks, fibonacci, futuristic, laing, leonardo, midlands, modern, orourke, paco, property, rabanne, riba, ring, selfridges, shiny, shopping, sky, striking, uk, west
