The Co-Mobility Hub is a services building that unlocks active travel and housing choice at The Phoenix.

The Hub is the home of the Co-Mobility services and most of the car parking for the project. A key tenant of the masterplan is the provision of low-traffic streets with reduced on-street parking and very few on-plot parking spaces. Removing private car parking from plots unlocks density and typology flexibility and therefore the ability of the project to offer housing choice. Located at the edge of the site and at the entrance to Lewes Town Centre the Hub will capture traffic before it enters to town centre gyratory and The Phoenix reducing congestion and improving air quality.

An array of facilities and amenities within the Hub will cater to community needs including dedicated accessible parking for the Health Centre, electric car hire service and car club, e-cycle and e-cargo bike hire, last-mile delivery and an e-shuttle bus service.

Designed as a 4-storey lightweight open framed structure, the Hub offers a positive frontage to Phoenix Causeway, with a modulated façade that addresses the adjacent Conservation Area. Venting requirements require a semi-open façade which will be achieved using reclaimed brick in a ‘Hit & Miss’ bond at higher levels with a more solid base grounding the building across the level changes. The roof forms echo the saw tooth silhouette of the former industrial buildings angled to maximise the effectiveness of PVs.

In addition to the building itself the scheme seeks to transform the currently hostile Phoenix Causeway into a welcoming public space for pedestrians and cyclists. Improved signalised raised table crossings on the Causeway and Eastgate Junction will provide an important new link between the town, The Phoenix and Malling. Together with bus stops and bus amenities the Hub and Phoenix Causeway will act as a travel hub for the town.

Foreshore Park, a new riverine public park, connects Phoenix Causeway to the river walk, inviting visitors to discover views towards Malling Hill and wider South Downs landscape, as well as enabling a future riverside walk into the town centre via Cliffe. The landscape proposal enhances local ecology by drawing inspiration from local distinctive landscape character.

The Foreshore Park will maintain and restore wetland conditions associated with the River Ouse by planting riparian native tree species, wet pastures and woodland. Within the park artefacts rescued from demolished or collapsed Ironworks buildings present themselves as follies and a memory of the site’s industrial past.