Brighton Churchill Square

The extension and refurbishment of Churchill Square seeks to transform the existing scheme into a place that is uniquely Brighton.

Project Details +

Project Details

Location: Brighton, UK

Date: 2015

Client: Standard Life

Size: 130,000m2 (retail 28,500m2, F&B 12,000m2, cinema, parking, c.1,000 homes)

Credits +

Credits

ACME: Reiner Beelitz, Julia Cano, Duarte Lobo Antunes, Friedrich Ludewig, Eleni Meladaki, Jack Taylor

Churchill Square

Churchill Square viewed from Western Road

Western Road

Planned since 1935, Churchill Square was completed in 1965 as a modern open air office and retail scheme. The 1970s saw the construction of adjacent elements along the seafront, including an ice-rink, cinema, conference centre and residential tower. Later modifications turned Churchill Square into a sterile indoor shopping centre.

This site can help to reconnect the city centre and the beach: on the street level, pedestrians can easily wander inside and outside, whereas the roof is made accessible, offering a vista on the seascape.

Activate the arches

Build an active frontage to the sea

Connect Western Road to the sea

Hotel and Residential

The southern frontage is rebuilt as seven levels of restaurants and markets facing the sea, flanked by new hotel and residential towers. The transparent façades blur the limit between the interior and exterior, inviting pedestrians to enter. Railings with a delicate interpretation of Brighton Regency patterns reinforce the horizontal composition. Inside, a white reconstituted stone structure creates a dreamlike atmosphere, a world inspired by the Brighton Pavilion roofs and the grandeur of Regency façades, uniquely of its place.