Retail

The northern part of Manchester Arndale – providing 75 new shops including the UK’s biggest NEXT store – features structural engineering design by our specialistsModern retailing focuses on creating pleasant, inviting environments, where a visit is seen as a leisure activity rather than a chore. There’s increasing emphasis on the effect the architectural and engineering design can have on a retail development’s profitability.

Flexibility also affects economics so building services and struc-ture alike must be designed to cope with the inevitable ‘churn’ of tenants within the retail environment. And as large retail develop-ments are significant users of energy, the design should minimise energy consumption as far as practically possible.

At Mott MacDonald we make sure our solutions address all these issues and more. Calling in our international team brings numerous advantages, among them:

• a specialist façade team able to design innovative systems for curtain walls, atrium spaces and skylight structures
• leading expertise in designing long span, architecturally innovative steel structures - particularly roofs
• in-house skills in performance-based fire safety engineering - offering the opportunity to provide demonstrated public safety without necessarily adopting prescriptive codes
• sophisticated computer modelling for natural and artificial lighting
• experience in sustainable design, including natural and mixed-mode ventilation, daylighting and photovoltaics
• proven ability to lead and manage fast track projects, in either a traditional tendered delivery arrangement or through novation and/or design and build.