Project Gallery
Merry Hill Shopping Centre
THE DEVELOPMENT Merry Hill is a shopping centre located in Brierley Hill near Dudley and is home to over 200 shops, a retail park, food court and cinema, along with various restaurants and bars around a waterfront marina. Located just 10 miles west of Birmingham city centre, Merry Hill is the eighth largest shopping centre in the UK.
Redevelopment of the West Midlands’ shopping centre into a new family entertainment leisure district is largely due to complete in 2025 following a five-year £50 million investment from owner Ellandi.
The majority of the exterior has been given a multimillion-pound makeover between 2020 and 2021, revamping external walls, replacing outdated cladding and modernising entrances. Whilst the 10,000-space free car par and bus station were also refurbished, a rear elevation of the centre has not been included in the exterior renewal so far and has yet to be upgraded.
THE BRIEF Our client had a clear vision to bring fresh life to the bus station elevation, simultaneously bringing the design aesthetic into line with the rest of the centre and the new wider leisure scheme.
In order to transform the view, coverage would be required for fifteen former light panels measuring 20 square metres each running horizontally across the upper level of the bus station.
The angular glazed walls behind the bowling alley would also need to be covered with our proposed solution also needing to act as a second line of defence and reduce the risk of water ingress. Beneath this area additional protection would also be need to prevent vandalism to the panes of glass close to the ground.
Finally, at the opposite end of the same elevation, a main entrance glazed atrium would need to be wrapped harmoniously.
THE SOLUTION The creative concept by Portland Design includes distorted images that suggest leisure, food and bowling, very much aligned with existing artwork in place on internal hoardings at Merry Hill, with confident angles and distilled use of colour.
To deliver this would require the perfect combination of building wrap techniques, including mesh banners, geometrically-aligned water-resistant PVC banners, durable ACP graphic panels and self-adhesive vinyl banners.
Embrace produced PVC banners for nine separate faces measuring 750 m2 to cover the front-lit angular glazed curtain walls behind the Hollywood Bowl. We also erected a robust 2.4 metre tall subframe structure along the bottom section of the bowling alley to prevent vandalism, allowing us to install hard-wearing printed ACP panels, themselves protected by our installation of anti-shopping trolley blocks
Adjacent to this we covered the fifteen former light panel sections to the bus station with printed Kavalan PVC-free mesh panels, capable of being repurposed or waste to energy conversion when ultimately removed.
Finally, we installed self-adhesive vinyl with a one-way print technique to wrap the glazed main entrance atrium, bringing bold colour to the exterior but still allowing plenty of light in to the centre.
The end results it totally aligned with the Merry Hill brand as a vibrant family lifestyle destination to socialise, relax and have fun. The rear of the centre has been transformed and we are delighted with the bold and bright outcome, delivered on time and to budget.