Queensgate Square opens: from co-ordinated design to public life

A public square only begins to prove itself when people arrive. On Saturday 26^th September, Queensgate Square opened in Huddersfield, welcoming residents and visitors for a weekend of music, workshops, activities and events. Alongside the new Library Hub, it is one of the first completed public spaces within Our Cultural Heart, Kirklees Council’s wider programme for the town centre.

For Gillespies, the opening represents the point at which several years of technical design, coordination and construction become part of everyday public life. The plans, models and details have become routes people can follow, seats they can use and spaces that can support both planned events and unplanned encounters.

That transition matters. Opening day is not the end of a landscape project, but the beginning of its life as a shared civic space.

Queensgate Square forms part of Phase One of Our Cultural Heart, alongside the new Library Hub and the refurbishment of the Grade II listed former Queensgate Market building.

The square has been designed to perform in different ways at different times. It creates a setting for events and cultural activity, while also providing the practical qualities needed for everyday use: clear movement, accessible routes, places to pause and space to meet.

This balance is central to the success of civic landscapes. A square should be able to host a busy opening weekend without becoming dependent on programmed activity. On an ordinary weekday, it should still offer a useful route through the town centre, a place to wait outside the library or somewhere to sit for a few minutes.

The relationship with the surrounding buildings is equally important. Rather than operating as an isolated space, Queensgate Square creates a civic setting for the Library Hub and the refurbished market building, helping the different elements of Phase One read as part of a connected place.

Gillespies was appointed as delivery landscape architect for Phase One, working alongside BAM Construction and Chapman Taylor to deliver the approved proposals developed by the retained concept design team, including landscape architect Re-form. The delivery landscape architect’s role sits at the point where an established design intent meets the realities of construction. Gillespies took the landscape forward through Planning, RIBA Stages 4 and supported its delivery on site.

This involved coordinating levels, materials, planting, drainage, access and interfaces with the surrounding architecture and infrastructure. Each decision needed to contribute to the quality of the square while also responding to buildability, maintenance and long-term use. Good technical delivery should not be visible as a separate layer. Its value is experienced in whether routes feel intuitive, whether entrances connect properly with the public realm and whether the space can adapt without losing its coherence.

Digital coordination played an important part in this process. Building Information Modelling (BIM) allowed the project team to work with coordinated 3D information and review the square in a virtual federated model before construction. For the landscape scope, this included levels, materials, site furniture, planting, drainage locations, access routes and interfaces with surrounding buildings and infrastructure. Bringing a 2D design into a 3D collaborative environment helped the team identify, review and coordinate these elements during construction.

The accompanying video, produced by Gillespies Principal BIM Manager Alejandro Masferrer Gatica, shows the transition from the federated Revit model to the completed public realm scheme.

The value of these tools is not the model itself, but what it enables. A coordinated model can provide a clearer basis for decisions during construction and help maintain the relationship between the original design and what is ultimately built. At Queensgate Square, the digital process supported the delivery of a public space intended to be practical, accessible and meaningful for the people who will use it.

The opening festivities offered the first real indication of how Queensgate Square can support public life. People were able to move through the space, gather, sit, take part in activities and experience it as part of the town centre rather than as a construction site.

Gillespies Associate and Landscape Architect Jon Freeman attended the opening:

“It was wonderful to see the completed Queensgate Square filled with people and providing a new backdrop to the Library Hub and the wider Our Cultural Heart development. Opening day was a significant moment, but this is only the beginning.”

Notably, the measure of a public square is not a single opening weekend or photograph. Its value will emerge through repeated use, seasonal change, future events and the everyday routines that gradually make it part of local life. Queensgate Square is the first phase of a larger programme for Huddersfield, and for now, it is rewarding to see the square move from concept and digital model to completed landscape. More importantly, it is now in the hands of the people it was designed to serve.

Client: Kirklees Council

Principal contractor: BAM Construction

Delivery landscape architect: Gillespies

Landscape concept: Re-form

Delivery architect: Chapman Taylor

Concept architect: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios

Project engineer: Curtins

Gillespies team: Sam Hutchison, Jon Freeman, Joseph D’Ambrogio, Alejandro Masferrer Gatica, Ryan Bailey and Tim Baldwin