Here is just a quick demonstration of the shear extent of change that has taken place in the Drake Circus space:

One thing I have noticed looking through the history of Drake Circus is that it has always been recycled as a social space. When documenting the use of space for the Eden project there was a very clear divide between the uses where it once was an industrial clay pit closed off to the public and was then turned into a social, educational and botanical space in one swoop. Looking at the images below, central to the history of Drake Circus (throughout the early half of the 20th century at least) is the large ‘Guiness building’ in the center of the series of roundabouts known as Drake Circus. From the photographs you can see that this contains shops and a cafe or two. From this it has been recycled into a shopping complex and then recycled again into another (if not somewhat improved) shopping complex.

In order to document the space in some way, I took some photos of the space (all outside because the security guards get a bit aggro inside!) in similar positions to some of the historic photos in order to compare the physical change. The flickr set is below:

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I have also found some interesting video from the BBC archives which show the transformation of the space. Please remember all videos are property of the BBC and I am only collating sources as reference. I really don’t BBC lawyers issuing a cease and desist!

An extract from a BBC report on the demolition of the old Drake Circus shopping centre.

A BBC report on the concept and development of the new Drake Circus Shopping Centre.

A time lapse video of the Drake Circus build showing the physical transformation of the space.

I’ve been looking into the history of Drake Circus because I can foresee an interesting history due to Plymouth’s military history and location in respect to World War 2.
All the following photos were sourced from the BBC as they have extensive documentation of the history of Drake Circus:

An artists impression of how drake circus looked in the 1900’s (view from old town street)

Drake Circus after the blitz.

View from ‘Boots Corner’ early 60’s.

Drake Circus 1960

Drake Circus 60’s at night (shows the social aspect of the space)

Demolition of old Drake Circus to make way for the 1970’s shopping centre.

Opening of the 1970’s Drake Circus

The old Drake Circus prior to demolition in 2003.

The Decay of the shopping centre prior to demolition.

The Decay of the shopping centre prior to demolition.

Demolition of the car park shown above.

Demolishing the underpass.

Ariel shot of the foundations in place for the new Drake Circus.

The new Drake Circus meets with the rest of the city for the first time.

Finished. Shot of old and new.

The area we are to document is contained within the new drake circus shopping center in plymouth. The space that Chris finds most interesting is the west entrance atria with both north and south entrances to the center.

There are a number of aspects of this space that prove to be interesting. There is a very visible divide between this atria and the rest of the shopping center denoted by both the tiling pattern on the floor and the internal architecture. Also there are many uses for this space…both possible and implemented. Whilst primarily being an access route to the many shops contained within the center it also appears to be a socialising space with an open coffee shop situated in the middle with chairs and tables. There are also frequent exhibitions of various products (cars, photography and such like). Aside from these points I shall be applying the same principles I used in the Eden study to document the transformation of this space.

Something I have noticed from perusing through google earth, and also from general observations in Plymouth, Drake Circus is situated at the furthest eastern point of the city centre and the focal elevation of the building is on the outer edge, which while this is a sensible choice, it effectively makes the ‘flagship’ of the city turn its back on the rest of the city center. Just an observation!

As part of the precident study we had a visit to a space decided by Chris, namely the entrance atria to the new Drake Circus shopping center in Plymouth. While in this space we were to document it using the principles learned from our initial studies into, in my case, The Eden Project. Taking the fact that my documentation of the Eden project was focussed around its transformation and the history of the space, I tried to document Drake Circus in a way that would show what it has become and the further transformation of the space for different uses, then discover what it once was. This plan was scuppered by hitler-esque security guards/rent-a-cops who wouldn’t let us film or take photos inside of the building due to data protection and some other noise like that! Collectively we managed to get some images (these are the ones Luke took as mine were few and far between) but I will be going back to do it properly!

As mentioned previously, Eden is an organic space that will continually evolve and change. On top of that there are plans for more buildings to expand Eden’s horizons for uses of the space as well as a third biome to house a dessert climate to add to the existing Tropic and Mediterranean climates. The most notable of the new builds is ‘The Edge’. This building will house the desert biome, a courtyard garden (designed to celebrate the preciousness of water) and a ‘Trading post’ (a place where people can meet and share ideas, culture and stories). The most interesting part of this space is the underground elements. “Underneath…a series of interlocking underground chambers will provide spaces for some of the great voices of the age – artists, writers, scientists and musicians - to work with communities and families and share the best ideas they have for improving their lives and environments, now and in the future.” (theedge.org)

Click for larger image

Through a series of images, architectural models and sketches, I have learned how the space left by the mining process, an arid and difficult to manoeuvre ‘moonscape’, has been manipulated and intervened by Smit and Grimshaw to produce the space we see today. The original plan for Eden was to produce the largest ‘lean-to’ greenhouse in the world and simply prop it against and wrap it around the contours of the pit. This idea gave way to the Geodesic Dome principle pioneered by Fuller, modelled on a series of large spheres intersected with the land to cleverly use the existing unnatural backdrop as an inner surface to grow the rainforest from. These domes presently stand as the largest examples of Geodesic dome structures in the world at 328 ft x 656 ft (oval).

The domes don’t even tell half the story of Eden, they cover only a fifth of the total area of the pit. The visitors centre at the entrance to the pit is a ’scimitar-shaped building’ nestled in the contours of the edge with the rear wall formed by rammed earth. The centre gives way to a view over the entire space as the tropics biome (the larger of the two) emerges. The entrance to the visitors centre is a ’street’ covered in tensile fabric which gives the indoor impression. The centre was the first building to be completed in the transformation, housing nearly 500,000 visitors who came to watch the biomes under construction and over 2 million visitors in Eden’s first year after opening. The space was primarily used as a cafe, shop and gallery but later was opened up into one large expanse to house an educational experience as well as the existing functions. (Pearman, Hugh. ‘The Architecture of Eden’ 2002)