Selfridges Department Store

Birmingham, England
Future Systems
2003

Jeremy Stroebel
2
 Its curves stand out in the shopping district of
Background Birmingham, England as part of the new Bulring
Shopping Center. Designed by Future Systems, the new
Selfridges Department store is one of the two anchors
of the newly redone shopping complex. As its form
follows the curve of the surround streets, it must also
meet up to design of the rest of the building. With their
new store, Selfridges aimed to redesign itself and their
image to a newer, younger, more fashion oriented
store. And as the store has become an instant
landmark since its construction, they have succeeded1.
What started as a tenant space in the new mall offered
to the English department store chain, has turned into

DESIGN
a unique store in England’s second largest city..
Originally offered was a space in a standard urban mall
with a boxy design that was made to not offend
anyone3. Selfridges decided they would be part of the
project on one condition, that the would be able to hire
their own architectural team to design their store1.
Vittorio Radice wanted something that would draw
people to the new store. He invited Future Systems as
well as two other firms to talk about designs for the
store. Jay Kaplicky, a partner in Future Systems, won
them over with sketches and a model that showed what
Radice wanted as a building that “drew people in from
a 30-mile radius”3. Eventually the final design that
resembles a “Reclining Woman’s Torso1” with openings
that suggest other body references such as a mouth or
eyes with trim or makeup3.

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 3

DESIGN
3

Section, Plan, and Site Plan

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Circulation and People
Two of the Selfridges Department Store main circulation and people oriented features
are the central atrium and the pedestrian walkway that links it to the nearby parking
structure. The bridge (shown on right) is double curving bridge that acts as a
convenience to avoid walking across the street at surface level, but also acts as an
entry into the store. The main entry, located on the first floor, directly below the
entrance to the bridge, leads to the main central atrium and circulation space.
Highlighted by the glass roof over the irregular shaped space, the atrium allows not
only for views to other floors of products and other shoppers, but also houses the main
escalators used to traverse the four story department store. Although normally
daylighting is not desired in a retail building, both the designer and client understood
that it gave a sense of orientation3.

DESIGN
3

3 3 3
Column Grid
The purpose of the column “grid” and structural frame of the
building was to support the free form façade of the building as
well as creating large, open areas that are well suited for retail
space. They used CAD/CAM techniques to create all the
custom structural pieces needed to pull this off in an
economically feasible manner while also maximizing floor to
ceiling heights as well as combining many old technologies to
create a perfect, innovative solution for the building.
When designing the column layout for the department store,
the structural firm, Arup, looked at imposing a standard grid

STRUCTURE
over the irregular plan shape, but it “seemed inappropriate
and incompatible” with the architectural goals of the space1.
Instead they created a column grid with columns surrounding
the outside of the form at 12 meter spacing with columns also
1
placed around the atria at the same 12 meter spacing. A few 1
extra columns were needed to cut down on the longer spans.
Primary and secondary beam spans were limited to 12 and 16
meters for economic feasibility.
As the shape of each floor of the building is slightly different
due to the curvature of the façade, secondary beams are
cantilevered at varying distances to the edge of the slap to
support the concrete floor. The beams are steel plate girders
to both cut down on the wasted material as well as allow for the
needed strength. These beams support a 150mm concrete
slab at each of the four levels1.

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Concrete Façade
The major design issue when it came to architectural and economical feasibility was coming up with a way to make the curving façade of
the building. The curve was too unique and changing to use any standard system for uniform pieces such as utilizing steel mullions or
precast concrete panels. Many different options were explored before they settled on the use of spray on concrete substrate, which
could be formed into the complex changing curve of the façade as well as having the strength to resist the lateral wind loads on the
building by being able to control the thickness that was sprayed on.
To construct the façade, metal mesh was bent on-site and served as permanent framework supported by four layers of structural
reinforcement for the spray on concrete. The concrete was sprayed from the outside of the building as seen in figure 11 to a thickness
of 175 mm. It is divided into panel-like sections, a floor tall each, that allowed the concrete substrate to be supported from the floor
above it which not only reduced possible effects of buckling, but also made it easier for structural analysis as seen in figure 121.

STRUCTURE
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Façade Cladding
Inspired by fashion (as seen in the middle right), the
aluminum disk covered façade of the Selfridges department
store helped to both cover up the concrete substrate of the
exterior but also provide an intriguing finish face to this
unique building in which the program called for very few 642
windows or other exterior elements. A total of 15,000
aluminum disks were used in the cladding of the exterior, but
the cost was quite comparable to standard metal and glass
facades of the surrounding Bullring buildings. Each disk
went through very detailed quality control testing as well as

STRUCTURE
being exposed to accelerated aging and weather to test its
overall durability. The disk covered façade was also tested
for abnormal loads that would be caused by climbers if
someone would to think it was a good idea to try to climb
1
the building using the disks as hand and foot holds1.
2
The top of the building features a lightweight glass atrium
roof that is suspended by pretension rods. These rods help
to hold the glass atrium ceiling in place as the weight of the
glass helps to resist upward, lift loads ending up in a highly
efficient lightweight roof structure1.
The building also features a few opening in the disk covered
façade that are detailed with “point-fixed, laminated glazing
with a ceramic frit and mirror-finished boarder”1. This
detailing is used at the main entrance, the pedestrian bridge
entrance as well as high windows in the structure1.

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Pedestrian Bridge
The bridge that spans from the Selfridges department store
to the nearby Moor Street Car Park spans 37 meters and fits
in with the overall architectural design goals of the rest of the
building. The bridge is supported partially by cable tied into 1

the roof level frame of the building, but also by the steel box girder that runs the length of the
bridge.
The bridge was another unique construction problem as the polycarbonate canopy is held up by
steel arch sections which vary along the length of the bridge as it has a slight arch in both plan and
elevation. To accurately fabricate all the necessary elements, a Rhino 3-D model was utilized (as
seen in the top right) which also allowed them to easily analyze the forces put on the bridge as

STRUCTURE
well1.
4

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5
Structural Awards
Concrete Society Outstanding Structure Award
Institution of Civil Engineers Regional Award
Royal Fine Art Commission & BSkyB Retail Innovation Award
Royal Institute of British Architects Regional Award
Structural Steel Design Award1

STRUCTURE
3 5
Bibliography
1 Clark, Ed, and David Gilpin. "Selfridges, Birmingham." Arup Journal (2006): 3-10. 23 Apr. 2007
<[Link]

2 "Dress, by Future Systems." Eikongraphia. 29 May 2006. 27 Apr. 2007 <[Link]

3 Russell, James S. "Future System's Selfridges." Architectural Record June 2004: 234-241.

4 "Selfridges." Arup. 29 Apr. 2007 <[Link]

5 "Skin + Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture." [Link]. 21 Nov. 2006. 29 Apr. 2007
<[Link]

SOURCES
6 "Wood and Metal." Weightlessness. 8 Sept. 2005. 27 Apr. 2007
<[Link]