Freeport Castleford
May 1999
In 1997 SPACE & PLACE were appointed to design the Freeport retail centre at Castleford, Yorkshire, having won a design competition to design the factory outlet.
A design conscious brief required high-quality materials and an abundance of visual interest, with a modern feel.
Three tensile fabric canopies ,almost twenty metres in height, give dramatic vertical emphasis, while a ring of neon-cored, twenty metre towers define the character of the development and reinforce the Freeport brand.
The standard shop modules sit behind strongly articulated facades with glazed canopies. Each square has a particular sense of place, generated by individual landscape motifs, fountains and above all by the dominant use of its own characteristic façade material. Frosted and tinted glass, framed timber panels, shimmering metallic surfaces and warm terracotta tiles are used to contrast and complement each other.
Freeport Castleford is now an established and major retail destination for the North of England.