Wolverhampton – Connecting places through public realm

Node has recently produced an exciting strategy to improve the public realm within Wolverhampton city centre, working alongside JMP and Place Marque. Wolverhampton is promoting a number of new developments, infrastructure upgrades and regeneration initiatives to revitalise its city centre.

Our work involved a number of innovative consultation techniques including utilising a site based ‘Placecheck’ assessment with key stakeholders, mental mapping exercises, on-street questionnaires and workshops in order to truly understand the key issues that needed to be addressed. This identified the following:

• Severance created by the ring road
• Poor legibility within the city core
• Large areas of under-utilised land within the city core
• Safety and security relating to the night time economy
• The need for event space

Our work will be important in helping to shape a city centre that is well connected, with greater pedestrian and cycle priority. Our proposals involved looking at the city centre core together with a number of key routes including links to the university and the Molineux to the north, the link between the station and the city centre and the relationship between the city centre and the canal.

Key proposals to improve the quality of the public realm in Wolverhampton include:

• Taking buses out of Queens Square and providing an improved high quality space along Lichfield Street
• Providing an improved link between Westside and the city centre along Darlington Street
• Creating multi-functional spaces that could be used for events
• Introducing a new signage and lighting strategy

As well as producing an overall strategy document, we provided a sketchbook of ideas for key public spaces to excite people about the possibilities that could be implemented. Precedents from all over the world helped to show how through aspirational design and the use of high quality materials, colour and lighting; spaces can be radically transformed and with them, the perception of the place as a whole.

The importance of improving the quality of the public realm and thinking about all users and modes of transport is crucial to improving the quality of life for residents, businesses and visitors to Wolverhampton. Our aspiration is to set out a strategy that encourages people to linger for longer within the city centre and inject a sense of fun and wellbeing that will help to revitalise the city over the longer term.