Swindon's Regeneration a Chance for Great Architecture & Design

Will Swindon's town centre regeneration lead to a new crop of landmark, award-winning buildings?

The Railway Village... Lydiard House... The Renault Building...The Motorola Building

All examples of important, nationally-recognised and in some cases, award-winning architecture, right in Swindon.

But in the last few years Swindon's perchance for landmark buildings has slowed somewhat.

With the town centre regeneration and the Swindon Masterplan, the will to push for new architecture and ideas in urban design is ready and waiting. Swindon could take a few risks in new designs and maybe see some more awards for it's built environment.

Swindon might not end up with dozens more landmark buildings, but the chance for high quality in urban design from the masterplan is a tantalising opportunity.

The New Look For Retail... In Swindon?

Consumers are remaining cautious when it comes to shopping and for the retail giants innovation and marketing has become more important than ever. We've seen the growth of 'click and collect' at lots of retailers, but will a combination of the comforts of online shopping at the personal touch of great customer service drive the creation of a new type of store? That's what Marks & Spencer's thinking is.

Could new or redeveloped stores in the middle of Swindon be built around these principles?

While trialling new ideas in retail, could it drive regeneration too?

Swindon's Regeneration : The Plan We've Been Waiting For

At it's core, regeneration is one person building something new out of nothing. A lone contractor at Swindon's Union Square.

One of the criticisms of Swindon's development has been it's lack of joined-up-thinking, this applies very much to our town centre. With the publication of the Swindon Masterplan Draft, a document is finally worthy of consideration for fixing that problem.

At 203 pages, it covers a vast number of areas, with detailed plans for each.

On first glance, it seems to do two things of immense importance that have historically been seen as only repelling each other. It recognises the historic details of areas (continuing streets on that have previously been obliterated) and how best buildings can be located or adapted for future focus and relevance (the recladding of the Signal Point building is a realistic prospect, unless money becomes forthcoming to replace one landmark with another that's of greater aesthetic value).

I'll look at the masterplan in greater detail soon. But the public exhibitions for the consultation on it (everyone's feedback will shape how the finalised masterplan turns out) start on Tuesday at the Central Library, details here.