Social impact developer Capital&Centric has offered at first look at how the internal spaces of a residential development being created from a former multi-storey car park will come together.
Work is underway to turn the former Midway car park in Newcastle-under-Lyme into a community of 111 apartments, a development claiming to be the first time a multi-storey car park has been converted into homes in the UK.
Capital&Centric say reusing the existing structure will slash carbon while ‘celebrating the building’s original bones.’
The newly-released CGI image of Karparc lifts the lid on the centrepiece of the scheme, showing a full-height atrium carved straight through the existing structure with planting used to soften the raw concrete frame.
Martin Crews, Development Director for Capital&Centric, said:“This is exactly the kind of bold, innovative transformation we’re known for. Plenty of people said turning a multi-storey car park into homes was pie in the sky. When we submitted planning, we were told it would never happen. Now it’s under construction and we’re making it real.
“The next step is getting people to want to live here – and the way we do that is through brilliant design. This project leans into those raw, 60s retro vibes, with exposed concrete and loads of character. We’ve taken cues from iconic mid-century projects like the Barbican, and as this image shows, it’s going to look incredible.”
Simon McEneny, Deputy Chief Executive of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, said: “This structure has been a familiar landmark in the town for decades.
“However, this representation of how the site will look once it is complete shows why this innovative project, part of the wider multi-million-pound regeneration of Newcastle’s town centre, is provoking international interest and will become a new landmark in its own right.”
The project, expected to complete in mid-2027, is part of a wider £90 million regeneration of the town.
Presumably this also allows what would otherwise have been dead apartments with no external windows (think internal cabins on a cross chanel ferry) in the centre of the building to have an “outside” view, even if it is directly into the apartments on the other side of this void space.