Ashford Designer Retail Outlets

The defining element of the design is the light-weight tensile fabric roof, supported from 22 bright orange steel masts and attached to the ground by tension cables attached to circular concrete pads anchors. The tent is undulating in form, rising to high points where the vertical steel masts act as counterpoints to the predominantly horizontal composition. The tent wraps around the leaf-shaped plan, joining at the northern end of the site. Here, pedestrians and train passengers arrive, passing a tourist information centre, a public display area, management suites and a food court. Those travelling by car arrive from the southern end of site where they gain access to the landscaped car park at the centre of the development.

The roof, the longest continuous tent structure in the world and covering an area of 30 square kilometres, shelters the ring of single storey units below. The units themselves, glazed on the inner face and clad in solid blue panels to the rear, are highly flexible insulated ‘boxes’. Each unit is air-conditioned with bright yellow external air handling units located on the rear of the units.