The Shopping Building, an indoor mall in the heart of the city centre, serves as Milton Keynes’s high street. Opened in 1979 and now rebranded the Centre: MK, it is surviving the economic downturn better than most, and its natural lighting makes shopping a more pleasant experience than in other indoor centres. The light comes from high clerestories over the malls, since the main roof is also the service yard for the shops, accessed by vehicles from a bridge that carries one of Milton Keynes’s many boulevards right over the middle of the building. The hi-tech design makes this unusual solution, devised by the architect Christopher Woodward, look deceptively simple.
Woodward, who has died aged 83, was appalled by the dingy yet expensive basement servicing required by contemporary shopping centres at Brent Cross and Runcorn, and in the US. For the Shopping Building, one of the focal points of the new town of Milton Keynes, he wanted to create real streets, with a building line and open-air parking. The rooftop service yard made this possible.
