Horrocks Mill is a key part of Preston’s wider Stoneygate Regeneration Framework. This masterplan will create a balanced city centre neighbourhood with a clear sense of identity with placemaking at its heart. The layout has been designed to play a huge role in achieving a number of wider aims for the City Centre, including improving connectivity, creating public open space, and repairing a splintered urban grain. The masterplan embraces a wide variety of surrounding building types and forms, skilfully working to create a cohesive whole by incorporating adjacent historic buildings and framing important vistas into the urban design.
Urban design, architecture and landscape design has been seamlessly blended throughout the design process to create a unique sense of place born from the history of the site and its importance in the early development of Preston. Building forms recall the industrial origins of the site, and importantly the variety of scale and density of the previous Mill Works that once occupied the site. Landscape prioritises pedestrian and cycle connectivity and the generation of liveable, usable spaces.
A green setting seeks to create a liveable and tranquil urban village, with moments of calm, and larger usable public realm spaces to facilitate interaction and exercise. Subtle but clear public and private divisions create a sense of continuity without visual segregation to ensure a clear sense of character across the proposal.
