This summer saw City of Wolverhampton Council join forces with social impact developer Capital&Centric and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) to challenge competing teams of renowned architects to put forward their ideas to turn the 5-acre former Sainsbury’s site and historic St George’s Church into a new neighbourhood for the city.

The team made up of Mikhail Riches and Periscope practices has been crowned the winner.

Locals flocked to a Dragon’s Den-style public consultation event at the University of Wolverhampton at The Halls in July, where each of the four teams (made up of 12 collaborating architect practices) pitched their ideas, with people able to give their opinions on their favourite. The competition was overseen by Angela Brady, a former RIBA President. 

Angela Brady OBE said:

“This was a fantastic opportunity for architects to be in competition together, working as a team with other architects to reinvent this disused part of Wolverhampton. All teams came up with vibrant ideas, which made it really hard to pick a winner.

“The Mikhail Riches and Periscope team had the edge with their vision, particularly with its retrofitting of the Sainsbury’s building in such an imaginative way. Also the three distinct zones they pitched could really create a great future for the area.

“This sort of collaboration between Council, developer, RIBA competitions office and architects I think allows a more joined-up end result and is a model that other areas should follow.”

The winning submission proposed a vibrant and varied neighbourhood of sustainable new homes, as well as lush outdoors spaces; boulevards and green streets; shops, cafes and bars; and community spaces.

They proposed to retain and repurpose parts of the former Sainsbury’s building – in turn saving embodied carbon. The practices have also put the St George’s Church at the heart of the community, surrounding it with new public squares for pop-up cultural events, intimate courtyards and social spaces for people to come together.

The winning design will form the basis of the evolving St George’s masterplan, with a pre-planning application submission to follow later this year.

The announcement comes as part of Wolverhampton’s annual Business Week, that this year explores the power to boost economic growth through housing. St George’s also features as one of the major opportunities in the council’s Wolverhampton Investment Prospectus.

Cllr Chris Burden, City of Wolverhampton Council Cabinet Member for City Development, Jobs and Skills, said:

“St George’s is a fantastic opportunity to create a game-changing neighbourhood of which the city can be proud. It’s a critical part of our citywide plan to unlock investment in considered development that delivers much-needed homes and new opportunities for our communities.

“The architects teams all produced outstanding design proposals and we are relishing the opportunity to work with the winners, Mikhail Riches and Periscope, to further develop their ideas.

“It is fitting that this news comes during Wolverhampton’s Business Week, with its flagship event, the Business Breakfast, focusing on economic growth through housing, and we believe St George’s provides the opportunity to set a new design benchmark for brownfield regeneration in the city.”

Developers Capital&Centric are leading delivery of the St George’s site, drawing on their experience of repurposing historic spaces and building standout new neighbourhoods across the UK, all with an acute focus on social impact. With a competition winner now selected, their next step will be to draw up more detailed designs.

John Moffat, joint managing director at Capital&Centric, said:

“From start to finish the St George’s architectural competition has been inspiring, from the variety of designs the architect teams put forward, to the people that came out to have their say on the options. The decision was a tough one, but the design by Mikhail Riches and Periscope is a deserved winner. 

“St George’s is a standout opportunity to take a redundant city site and turn it into something special for the community – retaining some of the existing buildings whilst creating interesting and welcoming new spaces where people want to spend time. We’ll be spending the next few weeks looking over the winning design with the team of architects and the council to fine tune the plans, so it’s primed for us to submit a phenomenal pre-planning application submission.”

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