2022 business review: successful, sustainable and creative places and spaces

As part of our ongoing strategy for successfully transitioning Chapman Taylor’s business leadership to a new generation, we have continued to strengthen our management teams in several studios including Bristol, Dubai, Düsseldorf, Manchester and Madrid. Key growth markets over the last year were China and Saudi Arabia, where we expect to see continued expansion in the coming financial year. To reflect this, we have opened a studio in Beijing and we are also planning a new office in Ahmedabad, India, during 2023 to complement the award-winning work of our existing New Delhi and Hyderabad studios. We continue to take a Responsible Design approach in our projects, extending our design considerations beyond environmental issues to include the social, economic and ethical dimensions, based on the principles of exemplary placemaking.

UK

Two key city centre residential schemes have completed this year - Castle Park View in Bristol and Kampus in Manchester. In London, two of four mixed-use residential buildings, part of the Millbrook Park urban regeneration scheme, are at practical completion and two residential towers at Manchester’s MeadowSide development are nearing completion. Construction has also commenced at the 29-storey Anchorage Gateway residential development in the city.

We have recently secured a resolution to grant planning permission for Purpose Built Student Accommodation at a central brownfield site located on Bristol’s famous Floating Harbour. The Manchester Goods Yard office development is approaching completion at St John’s Quarter in Manchester. Construction has now started at Hotel Indigo in Coventry, and the four-star Holiday Inn and three-star Ibis at Airport City Manchester have now completed. We are continuing to lead on major urban regeneration projects and it is good to see Coventry city centre South, for which we established the masterplan, moving forward.

Europe

Two major retail and mixed-use developments opened to the public in Germany - "Dreiländergalerie" (Three Countries Gallery) in Weil am Rhein and FLAIR Galerie retail and office development in Fürth. In the Czech Republic, the redeveloped Spektrum shopping centre in Prague’s Čestlice district has now completed. The extension of Designer Outlet Warsaw has opened in Poland. In Bucharest, Romania, two of our completed workplace projects have been very successful - J8 Office Park has been awarded BREEAM Outstanding certification, and over 8,000m2 of the U-Center has been leased to Booking Holdings Inc., owners of Booking.com.

A number of mixed-use developments are in the pipeline including Topkapı29, Istanbul; Nuremberg and Meppen, Germany; Chisinau City, Moldova; and Marnach, Luxembourg. Two highly sustainable workplaces are planned for client BOB AG, one for Düsseldorf and a second, nearby in Hamm. In France, construction is underway at The Spot at the shopping centre Evry 2 near Paris and a major refurbishment has completed at Creteil Soleil shopping centre. Phase 2 construction of Pinea Resort, in the Baltic city of Pobierowo, Poland, is now fully underway. Also in Poland, we are creating architectural and urban design concepts for the modernisation of two of Warsaw’s historic and well-known sports and recreation complexes. Whilst in the Czech Republic, construction has completed at Molo Lipno; a luxury residential destination that offers 79 lakeside apartments and penthouses together with a public pier featuring a high-class restaurant. An adjoining luxury hotel at the resort is due to commence construction in 2024. In Madrid, we are working on a major refurbishment project for the Gran Plaza 2 shopping centre.

China

Construction is ongoing on a 680-hectare urban district in Chongqing, with the first buildings completed and occupied. A large proportion of the significant landscaping and infrastructure is also complete including a new central lake. This “new area” for the city of Chongqing is due to complete construction in 2025. The workplace-led, mixed-use Zhangjiang IC Design Industrial Park Block 2B-6 is under construction in Shanghai.

This year we have won a number of prestigious design competitions, further cementing our reputation as leading masterplanners in the region. Among the winning designs were Yangpu Bay, an area of 5.21 km2 in Hainan’s West Wing Development Belt; a 99km2 development ‘One Line and Four Mines’ project for the mountains west of Beijing, and a large-scale transport-orientated masterplan in the Chinese city of Jiaxing, in the Yangtze River Delta. On a smaller scale, in July we won a Baoshan residential project for China Railway Corporation - apartments that will improve the quality of life of the ‘dispatchers’ or 'controllers', who work on China’s railways.

Middle East

Chapman Taylor is now working in over 20 cities in Saudi Arabia and is designing and delivering state-of-the-art cinemas for the Muvi Cinemas brand, the first Saudi-owned cinema chain. This year we have designed and delivered a number of new complexes including Muvi The View, Muvi Salaam Mall and Muvi Tala Mall in Riyadh.

Design work is ongoing at the mixed-use 'Airport City' development adjacent to King Abdulaziz International Airport. This will become a leading destination for visitors from across Saudi Arabia and the GCC region. The 1.91 million m² GBA masterplan for Airport City will create diverse tourism and business opportunities while also providing a dynamic lifestyle and family entertainment venue. KEC Hub, in the pilgrimage city of Madinah, is under construction. This 392,000m² mixed-use district will bring great benefit to residents and visitors.

Central Asia

The prestigious K Residence development has completed in Baku, Azerbaijan, with seven luxury courtyard residential buildings. Modelled on the leafy Regency terraces and crescents of Georgian London, K Residence is a sustainable residential scheme in a 340,000m² development area at the heart of the 221-hectare White City regeneration scheme. Construction has now finished on Port Baku Tower 2, in Baku. This elegant addition to the Port Baku skyline will offer a mix of uses including workplace, restaurants and retail. We are also designing a number of important masterplans in Azerbaijan.

The doors are now very successfully opened at the innovative MyCar auto centre in Almaty in Kazakhstan, and construction has commenced on Almaty Museum of Art, which will have an important collection of Central Asian and international contemporary art.

South and South-East Asia

Chapman Taylor’s Bangkok studio has completed the renovation of the level six inpatient ward and the ICU1 ward at the prestigious Bumrungrad International Hospital. Phase two of the refurbishment of the British Club, Bangkok, is also now complete. Construction has completed on the first of five luxury villas on the beautiful island of Koh Phangan, Thailand. In Vietnam, we are designing large urban masterplans and hospitality projects in various parts of the country.

In India, a 47-storey development, Hyderabad 1, due to complete in 2026, has been given gold certification by the Indian Green Building Council and will be the world’s tallest co-living development at 160 metres, and a series of significant workplace projects in Hyderabad are progressing well on site.

Construction work is progressing at Dolmen Mall in Lahore, Pakistan, a 75,000m2 shopping centre located within the Defence Housing Authority grounds, which is due to complete during 2023.

Rest of the World

Chapman Taylor is collaborating with a global off-site manufacturer and US investment company to develop a modular residential prototype for a major investor in the Californian residential market and is undertaking the concept design of a number of retail and mixed-use developments in Central and South America.

Awards

Chapman Taylor has won 20 industry-leading awards this year, including City Centre South Coventry masterplan Gold at the Urban Design & Architecture Design Awards, Kampus in Manchester ‘Apartment Development of the Year (more than 300 apartments)’ North West Residential Property Awards 2022 and Castle Park View 'Best Residential Development' at the Bristol Property Awards. Molo Lipno in the Czech Republic won Best Large Scale Residential Project’ at the Best of Realty Awards in the Czech Republic and also won the main sponsor’s award from Wienerberger in the Stavba Roku (Building of the Year) 2022 competition. Zhangjiang IC design Industrial Park 2b-6 and Urumqi Exhibition Wuyue have both recently won Outstanding Property Awards in the category of Architecture and Interior Design respectively.

Moving into 2023...

We have many projects under construction in countries across the world and in all our key market sectors, with notable schemes in the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, Thailand, China and India. We look forward to working collaboratively with our partners in the year ahead, to create successful, sustainable and creative places and spaces.