Stitching the Town - The Valley Centre, Rawtenstall | with Aedas
This straightforward repair of urban grain features mixed use buildings and usable public space, an antidote to the gestural “flagship” urbanism favoured by local town political headlines. Significantly the proposal:
Reinforces the remaining historic street pattern to generate a sense of place about the town centre.
Provides a public event square and/or market venue, the heart of the town, a consistently detailed landscape surface extendable beyond the site confines.
Builds on the tradition of a local authority presence on site at the former Town Hall, retaining and extending this building with civic offices fronting this new square.
Provides flexible spaces for live/work in addition to conventional single use buildings.
Reaches out to embrace the stores Tesco and Asda, by creating initially visual links which could over time be reinforced by physical provision.
Foresees a future transport interchange with a Manchester LRT extension as a practical proposition on the existing bus station site.
Builds on the local tradition of solid buildings which respond to their topography.
Design 2013.
