Eden Shopping Centre in High Wycombe

• Eden Shopping Centre is being one of the most inspirational and exciting new shopping and leisure destinations in the UK.
• It was opened almost full five months early, after three years of painstaking building.
• Apparently more than 350,000 people visited Eden in its first four days - more than twice the population of the entire Wycombe district.

• The river feature should have been included
  The large retail outlet at Wycombe Marsh is a good example of the preserved river feature.
  However within the High Wycombe town centre the River Wye was already culverted in the 60's when the town centre was redeveloped, and it would be rather difficult now to get back the attractive townscape, as well as build an extensive shopping centre in the same restricted space.
• Eden charges much higher parking charges at day time then at night after 6pm
  And again this comes back to the space shortage in the town centre, and consequently the parking being too expensive, which in turn also relates to the unsolved traffic problem.
• The new Eden Shopping Centre doesn't integrates properly into the Octagon centre
  Many blame for this the Tesco building for being at the wrong place preventing the architects from coming up with a much better design.
• The uncovered part of the centre being too tall and acting as a wind tunnel
  This is probably the most interesting criticism since it relates to the energy aspects of the design:
  
  So far the Eden Project is the world largest green house and as all other green houses it traps the sun's energy to heat in the enclosed inner space. As we know the green houses tend to overheat on the hot and sunny summer days, and indeed the entire planet is experiencing the so called "global warming" because of the green house effect.
  
  Inspired by the green house concept and it's successful use at Eden Project, the Eden Shopping Centre utilises the same technology for it's roofing, known as ETFE foil cushions. Their characteristic appearance from distance is like a giant Bubble Wraps, although in the Eden Shopping Centre the cushions are hardly visible.
  
  The Eden Shopping Centre planners were obviously worried about the uncontrolled solar gain and left part of the centre uncovered to act as natural ventilation on the hot and sunny days.
  For the uncovered part the planners utilised a passive design measure to control the solar gain:
  Narrow walkway with tall walls to help to reduce the angle of incidence of the sun's radiation. About midday the sun may directly heat the surface of the walkway, but most of the day it is shaded.
  
  Unfortunately many cities experienced that the narrow streets and tall buildings can cause winds to increase dramatically thanks to the "canyon-effect", making such places uncomfortable on the colder days. In that respect the Eden Shopping Centre design is a compromise and the time will show, is it a good one.
  
  I wonder though would it be feasible at all, to cover the uncovered walkway as well for the period of 9 months, and then remove the cover during the hottest 3 months?
  After all the extra cost of such exercise could be offset against the steady shopping activity throughout the year, and the centre would gainin more regular customers.
  
  Quote: "Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures"