The retail sector faces a constant challenge to stay ahead of its customers with fresh offerings to attract customers – and shopping centres are no different in this respect than the retailers they house.

In Aylesbury we have been helping the owners of Friars Square for just this reason, creating a dramatic new glazed atrium for its main entrance onto Market Square.

Standing nine metres in height, the atrium’s most striking feature is its LED lighting that can change colour and configuration according to time of day or season, as directed by centre management, and draw people in.

The box is supported by a structural steel frame and concrete piled foundation. We built up the levels in the centre to accommodate it and installed new automatic doors as well as handling the mechanical and engineering work and linking this element of the centre into the wider building management system.

All of this was done to a strict short shift schedule from 6pm to midnight each day for 16 weeks to ensure that the centre’s customers and nearby residents suffered minimum inconvenience, footfall was not affected and everything was ready for Christmas.