Mercia Marina – Willington, Derbyshire
Since 2008, we have been working with Madecorn Leisure to bring to life the vision of Mercia Marina – Derbyshire’s largest waterside marina attraction, shopping, and holiday destination, filled with businesses, restaurants, shops, coffee houses – and, of course, boats.
Before the marina was built, Willington Lake was a private fishery. But by retaining and enhancing the natural contours of Willington Lake for the benefit of both visitors and wildlife, Mercia Marina is now a bustling destination attracting 800,000 visitors annually.
Over the course of 15 years of working on the different elements of Mercia Marina with Madecorn Leisure, we’re very proud to have won 2 regional and 1 national award for the boardwalk building and been shortlisted for the Piazza building in recognition of our creative and innovative designs.
The Boardwalk
In 2013 construction began on the marina’s the award-winning Boardwalk, a promenade of boutique retailers, with offices above, centred around a two-storey bar and restaurant. The development fronts onto a raised wooden walkway offering terrific views of the water, boats, and wildlife.
The Boardwalk development at Mercia Marina was the LABC East Midlands Region and UK National winner for Best Small Commercial Project in 2015.
The Bandstand
During the construction of the Boardwalk building, Mercia Marina wanted to create a traditional Victorian bandstand that could be used for events and seating.
The outcome was to produce a five-side bandstand with projecting prow ends to replicate the feature gables on the Boardwalk building.
The Piazza
Inspired by the bustling, open Venetian courtyards and with commanding views around the Marina, the next stage was the development of the Piazza building, designed to sit seamlessly alongside the Boardwalk building. The existing Boardwalk building is two-storeys with a low-pitched roof and part of the design challenge was to create enough upper-floor accommodation for the offices, without making the building too dominant over the Boardwalk.
To achieve this the roof pitch of the new building was steepened to allow space for a second floor within the roof. Three wings were created around the central tower, with glazed gable ends on each wing to complement the Boardwalk and allow great views over the marina from the 2nd floor. The roof of the tower was inspired by the bandstand which has a five-sided projecting gable roof. The tower is similar to 4 projecting gables. The three wings are connected to the tower below three of the four gables, leaving the front gable exposed, as a prominent feature of the external Piazza area.
The building relates well with the peninsula, the existing bandstand, and the Boardwalk building.
The Piazza building was shortlisted as a finalist in the Best Large Commercial Building Project category of the East Midlands LABC Building Excellence Awards 2019.
Promenade Building
The latest project for the Marina is the Promenade, a striking building which consists of seven ground-floor retail shops, offices, a café / restaurant and 14 luxury apartments. Replacing an original building, the Promenade, although unique in appearance still contains the same architectural DNA as the rest of the development, such as the raised area and walkway, similar to the Boardwalk where visitors can sit and enjoy the beautiful views of the Marina.
Architecture Vogue Magazine celebrates Mercia Marina, Derbyshire’s award-winning waterside hub, thriving since 2008 with Madecorn Leisure.
