Ashford Designer Outlet extension shortlisted for Global RLI Award

The Global RLI Awards celebrate the most visionary and innovative retail and leisure concepts from across the world. The prestigious awards ceremony will be held at London’s Natural History Museum on Thursday 7 May.

The Ashford Designer Outlet extension, designed by Chapman Taylor’s London studio alongside Applied Landscape Design, and delivered by the Bristol studio in conjunction with Main Contractor McLaren, adds 46 retail, leisure and F&B units to the 80 already operating, as well as a new events space and a children’s play area. The canopy roof on the existing building was modified to tie the new area in visually.

A net 324 extra parking spaces have been created to serve the development, while links to Ashford town centre are being improved to facilitate the whole scheme. The shell & core design and delivery for the extension has achieved BREEAM Very Good certification for sustainability, while there is also a large and attractive public realm element to the scheme, designed by Applied Landscape Design.

Reflecting Kent’s status as “the Garden of England”, the living green wall of tens of thousands of vertically stacked plants which clads the centre is the largest living wall in Europe – greeting affluent long-haul tourists from Europe and beyond as well as day-out shoppers.

The extension project was conceived by McArthurGlen, as an opportunity to revamp the whole retail experience and to create a flagship designer outlet centre for the UK.