Last week’s copy of The Architect’s Journal, carried an article about the winning entry for the redesign of Nottingham’s Old Market Square. The winning design is by Gustafson Porter.
I like the proposal, it should open up the square much better, as it is currently dominated by grand fountains that break up the space too much. The new design includes water, but it’s low level and of a more human scale. I hope they have more luck than we do at work with the health and safety obsessed crowd who think the public can’t be trusted with a puddle.
I also hope that whoever used to dump what must have been several bottles of washing up liquid into the fountains when I was a kid – filling the fountains and square with bubbles that blew across town – returns to continue the practice with the new water feature. It was a delight that I remember fondly.