Public Indoor Infant and Toddler Garden and Nursing and Feeding Area, Exeter – The Guildhall Shopping Centre and Aviva

With no budget and through the reuse of materials, an empty space was transformed into an inclusive, free, safe and comfortable family hub with some elements to encourage play and the flexibility to hold meet-ups including Sing & Sign, breastfeeding groups, pushchair parking and sufficient seating.

Where is the project located? 
1st Floor, The Guildhall Shopping Centre, EX4 3HL
 
Who is the developer/client of the project?
Aviva is the Shopping Centre Owner, Cushman and Wakefield are the Managing Agents
 

(Note: This entry was submitted in Public Space but was moved by the judge during deliberations because the entry was more relevant to this category.)

Describe the context of this project and its neighbourhood and people?

The Guildhall Shopping Centre is an undercover centre located in Exeter, Devon with a demographic being low to middle income users. The Guildhall has positioned itself as a community centre and has always maintained a strong local visitor audience with around 9 million visitors a year, maintaining above national average visitor figures throughout the pandemic. Research and personal lived experience have identified that our local parent/carer community are struggling to find indoor, sheltered areas in Exeter where they can visit to socialise, eat or play, free of the expectation to pay or make a purchase. We also noticed how public facilities such as dedicated feeding spaces had never existed locally. The pandemic has also shown that parents of newborns are some of the most isolated people in our communities and that a flexible space would be a significant benefit.

Some units have been increasingly difficult to let due to location - with these negatively impacting the customer experience. This project was designed to transform our vacant space, creating a fully inclusive, free, safe and comfortable family hub that would positively impact our community and deliver a much-needed service.

The project was also founded out of lived experiences of staff and retailers who shared a wish to create a space for young children and parents/carers to use due to the lack of it in the city centre, and a wish to make a positive contribution to the community and prove the viability of spaces like this in shopping centres nationally.

 
Tell us what you did and how it was designed and delivered. What do you see as the greatest success of this project?

Drawing on the wish to create a functional space that is open to all, we consulted with local parent/carer groups as well as nurseries and schools posing the question of:‘What type of space do you NEED? The response was overwhelmingly that they needed open, uncluttered space with some elements to encourage play but with flexibility to hold meet ups. They also wanted safe spaces to park pushchairs and sufficient seating.Being a very lean team of the Marketing Manager and The Maintenance Manager, we set about finding all the elements we could source with sustainability in mind to create a high quality space with no budget but to still remunerate people fairly for their contributions.

The biggest success of this project is the instant feedback we receive on a daily basis. We knew that both of these facilities were rare in our city but to have parents stop you daily and say how much it has impacted their lives for the better and how the play area has meant they feel comfortable and safe coming into town again with small children. This feeds into the ultimate goal, to influence other shopping centres and private landlords to invest in their communities through spaces like these that give back in buckets and create city spaces to be proud of.

Children are the future of our high street and as such, we have a responsibility to make a space for them on it from the beginning of their lives.

 
How does this public space bring people together, encourage inclusivity, and make a positive environmental impact to the wider place? How is the community engaged in the project?

We have an extensive spring/summer schedule of events for the Indoor Infant and Toddler garden planned. This includes Sing&Sign, Drama and story reading drop in sessions that are fully funded by the Shopping Centre. It is important for us to remove any financial barrier in place stopping our local community from accessing meet-ups and skills like this. We also have Breast Feeding Peer Support groups that meet up outside our Nursing and Feeding Area as we engaged heavily with the Neo Natal unit at the local hospital when designing this space.

Feedback shows how excited our community is by this space and how happy they are to feedback suggestions and take ownership of it when they have concerns.

By the Indoor Garden simply existing, it has created a space for meet ups and impromptu play sessions any time of day and this has helped create a feeling of inclusivity for those with younger children who have always felt that the high street doesn’t cater for them.

Both spaces are wheel chair friendly and provide flexible space for groups to meet up and as it is monitored and checked by security and cleaning teams, the public feel safe to be in these spaces.
 
Please share any data or figures that support your entry about how this public space or landscape intervention has made a positive social or environmental impact, for example biodiversity, increased dwell time, flood or drainage mitigation, wellness or safety or other ecosystem services.

The inclusion of these spaces has increased footfall and dwell time extensively. Looking at average footfall counters at the entrance to the garden, the average weekly count was 512 (average across 2019 as a bench march year). This was with all businesses which have now seized trading full time. Since the addition of these two community focused initiatives, the footfall is on average 8,670 a week. A nearly 17 times increase on previous years. Our dwell time in the garden is between 30min to 1 hour and our demographic is split 65% female, 35% male. Since the closure of the brands in this area, the space has been used by students sitting in large groups on the floor and causing obstructions. To ensure this group was not completely displaced, we have purchased benches (made from locally recycled plastic), and created a nearby space for students to enjoy their lunch in the shelter of the mall.

It is important for us to not displace members of our community, but rather enhance the space in which they dwell, and be known as a safe and clean place for people to come and spend time.

We hope this space will eventually also form an argument for or blue print for what public spaces on private property can look like when planned and executed with no detrimental effect to landlord revenue due to the increase in footfall and the removal or poor performing units from the commercial landscape.