Works Commenced: Headingley Stadium

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Works have commenced on site at Headingley Stadium to upgrade their indoor practice facility ahead of the England v India test match this summer. gcp Chartered Architects were recommended to Yorkshire County Cricket Club (YCCC) by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to design and co-ordinate the refurbishment works. gcp were appointed at the start of February 2025, prepared the tender pack by the start of March with a view to getting on site at the start of April, and completing the works by mid-June.

The proposals will greatly improve the health and safety strategy for the facility by complying as far as reasonably possible with ECB technical guidance. Learnings have also been taken from our recent technical guidance note for the ECB on Covered Outdoor Cricket Facilities, particularly around the use of tensioned net environments and a considered method of entry and escape through a potential risk zone for inclusive and safe access.

Construction North Group (CNG) have made great progress with the strip out and demolition works. We look forward to seeing progress on site over the coming weeks.

Masterplan: Sheffield Caribbean Sports Club

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gcp have recently submitted a pre-planning application for the redevelopment of Sheffield Caribbean Sports Club. Over the last year gcp have undertaken several rounds of consultation with club members, national governing bodies, local residents and other stakeholders to identify the most appropriate development to ensure the long-term sustainability of SCSC. These plans have public and private sector backing which should enable swift delivery subject to planning approval.

The proposals include:

  • The creation of an artificial 7-a-side football pitch would allow the club to train year-round on-site. The artificial pitch would double as an improved hockey training surface for Chapeltown Hockey Club.

  • The introduction of two netball courts would allow the SCSC netball team to return to The Common and reduce club costs for facility hire in the city centre. These courts would also double as tennis courts, a basketball court, and a 5-a-side football pitch.

  • Four padel courts, funded through private investment, would provide a home for the fastest growing sport in the UK. Revenue from these courts should help to fund the other improvements.

  • A three-lane outdoor covered cricket facility would provide state-of-the-art practice lanes which maintain their performance year-round without the capital expenditure associated with a traditional sports hall.

  • Rationalised parking to increase the number of vehicle spaces on site and improve safety for pedestrians and vehicles moving through the site.

  • Landscaping features to improve the ecology and biodiversity on site, as well as create natural terraces to improve viewing opportunities for the cricket pitch.

This masterplan pre-app will run in tandem with the clubhouse planning application which is expected to receive a decision this summer.

ECB Design Guidance Note

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Over the last 18 months, gcp Chartered Architects have led an extensive team of consultants, alongside the England & Wales Cricket Board, to produce a design guidance note for ‘Covered Outdoor Cricket Facilities’. The process involved a significant amount of technical rigour and research, including: consultation across ECB departments, conversations with various other national governing bodies and manufacturer and supplier meetings. All of this to achieve an ‘inside out’ approach offering a valuable new opportunity for those wanting to provide cricket training and playing facilities year-round.

Materplan: Example Urban Scenario

The project began with a team meeting at the ECB’s Covered Outdoor Cricket Facility pilot scheme, Bradford Park Avenue. The meeting allowed the team to analyse the pilot facility in depth, established what was working well and what might need clarification as a part of the technical design guidance. gcp were also commissioned to undertake a photographic study of the facility as a part of the research phase.

Following the Bradford meeting, gcp embarked upon the wider research phase, initially meeting with:

  • Manufacturers, and suppliers of netting, surfacing, structures, canvasses and even bowling machines!

  • National governing bodies for other sports

  • Regional cricket clubs

  • A team of specialist subconsultants which included a civil and structural engineer, an MEP consultant, an accessibility consultant, an acoustician and a building regulations consultant.

Single Lane General Arrangement Plan

Through close collaboration with the ECB Facilities Services team, gcp proceeded to the design and written phase of the project, with each consultant feeding in their own contributions, comments, and expertise along the way.  

The evolved document underwent extensive in-house review from both gcp and the ECB before being released as a culmination of approximately 18-months’ work, including input from dozens of different experts and professionals.

Net configurations

This project is the latest in an ongoing 15-year working relationship between gcp and the ECB, where we have provided architectural and wide ranging consultancy services. We’re extremely proud of the continued relationship with such a prestigious sporting national governing body. We’re also very grateful to the ECB for their continued support. Projects like this are only ever made possible with mutual trust, collaboration, and dedication.

Finally, we are thrilled to announce that the documents are now available to download on the ECB website, here: https://www.ecb.co.uk/news/4263505 .

Bradford Park Avenue (ECB Pilot Scheme)

Planning for the Future Q&A

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Our Planning For The Future events were a huge success! We tackled the upcoming Local Plan changes and what they mean to sustainability in construction. Our team shared key insights on achieving sustainability targets, with a special focus on Passivhaus and energy-efficient design. 

The live Q&A was buzzing with great questions and we have addressed some of the key questions raised below that we believe are worth sharing.

Thank you to everyone who joined and contributed!

Can you please explain the difference between BREEAM outstanding compared with Passivhaus and which is better value?

Whilst BREEAM and Passivhaus both sit below the umbrella of sustainability, fundamentally they measure different things.

BREEAM is a wider reaching assessment methodology which picks up issues like health & wellbeing, waste, and energy. Passivhaus just focusses on energy. To achieve BREEAM outstanding you would need to receive a BREEAM score of over 85% across all categories. This could be achieved by prioritising other categories to energy, so whilst BREEAM outstanding is a good indicator of a very sustainable building, it does not guarantee the building is low energy.

Passivhaus however has clear pass/fail metrics for energy including Heating Load, Space Heating Demand, and Primary Energy Demand. Achieving Passivhaus guarantees that the building is low energy.

The concept of carbon ‘offsetting’ was introduced in 1992 at the Kyoto Protocol. How do you foresee that offsetting can be eliminated in excellent design?

Carbon offsetting is certainly necessary in the short term. Currently we can achieve net zero in operation without the need for offsets, especially on low rise residential. Issues arise when we consider embodied carbon due to the construction sector’s reliance on virgin materials, particularly concrete and metals.

Moving from our current linear economy to a circular economy will greatly help to reduce carbon emissions in construction, but this will be decades in the making. LETI and the Net Zero Carbon Building Standard set out targets for embodied carbon which reduce towards 2050 as the industry moves towards circularity.

In the current market, the best way to achieve net zero whole life carbon without offsets is first and foremost to design efficient and simple forms which avoid tricky junctions, as these typically require less material.

The next step is to use natural materials which sequester carbon during the building’s lifecycle. This is not a silver bullet however as the natural materials must be sustainably sourced and ideally have a re-use strategy for end of life to avoid the products being sent to landfill or burnt which would see the sequestered carbon return to the atmosphere.

Have you conducted costing studies for achieving EPC A, considering sequencing, build programme implications and the potential need for mechanical ventilation?

There are some useful industry reports which discuss cost uplifts for sustainable buildings. These reports are not always linked to EPC A as a metric, but they can be used as a rule of thumb.

AECOM undertook a study alongside UCL in 2021 which demonstrated that the cost uplift of moving to Passivhaus can be as low as 0.9% if you use experienced designers and contractors.

For more information on this topic, please see the following article: HERE

WSP undertook a study for BCC in 2021 to inform the council’s new Local Plan in which they measured the cost uplift of achieving RIBA climate challenge 2025. This target includes not only Net Zero in use but also embodied carbon reductions. For a semi-detached house, the cost uplift was 15%.

For more information on this topic, please see the following Policy from the West of England Combined Authority:

Santander published a report in 2022 which identified that homeowners are willing to pay between 9.4-15.5% more to buy an energy efficient home.

Read the full ‘Buying into the Green Homes Revolution’ report by Santander.

The figures suggest that capital investment in sustainable development will either return similar profits to current practice, or improved profits if using consultants and contractors who are used to the practices and design from first principles.

The key here is using experienced consultants and being open to a new design methodology to eliminate sequencing and programme issues.

Are there any enforced requirements on future homeowners to use specific products e.g. recycled material carpets, high spec windows etc?

Currently there is no requirement for homeowners to install low embodied carbon materials although this could change in the future.

The Net Zero Carbon Building Standard requires a building to be re-assessed at any time in its life if the owner wishes to claim the building as Net Zero. This would pick up on homeowner material changes and could impact the outcome. The NZCBS is currently an opt-in target and thus this will not be enforced.

I think realistically this will never be enforced on homeowners, however as we move to a circular economy it is likely that there will no longer be high carbon products on the market because they cannot be installed in new buildings. This will mean that naturally homeowners will be persuaded to install low carbon materials.

How does the panel feel about the proposed expansion of Heathrow Airport when considering the current climate emergency?

In 2023, the greenhouse gas emission of London Heathrow Airport amounted to approximately 18.8 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent. 51,500 metric tons per day. Using the LETI embodied carbon primer a house emits approx. 40 metric tons up to PC. That means Heathrow’s daily emissions equate to the construction of approx. 1,290 homes.

Air travel is one of the most polluting industries on earth. We have a global carbon budget which needs to be shared equitably across all sectors. The expansion of Heathrow will take a considerable chunk of our UK carbon budget which could be used to address more pressing issues.

The graph below compares carbon emissions of air travel and train travel at a national and international scale. A report by GreenPeace also found that 71% of the time air travel is cheaper than train travel and the average price increase for train travel is 200%. There is a clear incentive here to use air travel which has a considerably worse impact on the environment.

To discourage air travel, I would suggest both the creation of a tax on aviation fuel and an additional tax on business travel. Ideally, this revenue stream would then be invested in improving sustainably transport at all levels.

Ultimately, the Heathrow expansion is based on anticipated demand. Maybe we need a culture shift in the UK towards slow travel. Make the journey part of the adventure.

Are you finding the construction industry lagging behind with the knowledge and expertise to build to these standards?

The first Passivhaus project was built in the 1990’s. 30 years have passed and this still isn’t commonplace, so absolutely the construction industry is lagging behind.

The construction industry at large is certainly not in any rush to achieve these standards. Construction is very risk averse be it through the fear of using unproven systems, the ease of sticking with what we know and being able to squeeze larger profits, or the inability to specify certain materials due to insurance issues.

Pockets of the industry have found a niche for providing low energy housing which show the standards can be achieved, and according to the reports referenced previously they can be achieved at relatively low costs. The construction methods are largely the same, and whilst air-tightness can be a challenge, there are many products on the market now which make this easier. The key to unlocking low energy housing at scale will be having sufficient MVHR, ASHP, and PV installers.

The few have proven the concept. It is now for the many to adopt these practices and make low carbon standards the norm.

How difficult is it to achieve Passivhaus standards with higher buildings? Is there a sweet spot for height with carbon / cost benefit ratio?

When looking to achieve Passivhaus on higher buildings, the same factors need to be considered at day 1. These primarily focus on building junctions; how will continuity of insulation be ensured around a steel or concrete framed building? How will the airtightness line be maintained? Once a clear strategy is in place for the construction and sequencing, higher buildings should be easier to achieve Passivhaus on than low rise domestic.

This comes down to a rule called form factor. The form factor is derived from the surface to volume ratio for a building. The larger the building, often the smaller the form factor. This can also be seen in nature where animals in particularly cold environments tend to be larger with a small surface to volume ratio to limit heat losses. Typically to achieve Passivhaus levels of insulation, the form factor should be multiplied by 100 to give the thickness of insulation required in mm.

We trust that this has addressed queries raised at the Planning For The Future Event. However, if you have any outstanding comments or questions regarding the above, please do not hesitate to contact us.

More accreditation success!

Congratulations team gcp for another successful recertification audit of our Quality and Environmental Management System (QEMS) ISO9001 and ISO14001.

Here at gcp, we are committed to the continuous improvement of all procedures, practices and systems, which starts with QEM and extends beyond. We use this system to maintain efficiency of work, alongside a high standard of customer service, whilst holding space for innovation and forward thinking.

The 2025 audit continues a long-running history of successful compliance audits and the use of this system as a robust management tool. gcp have proudly held an accredited system since 1994 and were one of the first practices in the South West to gain a Quality Assurance accreditation.

Alongside this certification, we also maintain various other accreditations and memberships to support our credentials, including, but not limited to those shown below.

Finally, thanks to the whole team, who continue to be at the heart of the success of our system, approaching both day-to-day work and the audits with expertise, diligence, good humour and creativity.

McBraida "fact-finding mission" in Poland

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Three members of gcp recently accompanied senior management from McBraida plc on a fact-finding mission to their factory in Rzeszow, Poland. McBraida are a west country precision engineer of aerospace components and a long-standing client of gcp who has been assisting in the defining the company’s long term future development plans.  In 2012 McBraida established their subsidiary factory within the former Soviet aerospace community in eastern Poland.

The visit to the Rzeszow facility was crucial as we work to deliver McBraida’s planned office and factory extension in Bridgeyate, Bristol. It provided valuable insights into their operations. We were impressed by the well-delivered and finished scheme, particularly considering the logistical challenges of distance and language. The McBraida design and construction team in Poland have set a high bar for our scheme in Bristol which is being designed to take the business to the next level operational efficiency and consolidate McBraida in the upper tier of aerospace component manufactures in the southwest, and nationally.

This fact-finding mission has informed our team and will contribute to the successful delivery of the Bristol project. We are excited about the opportunity to continue working with McBraida and bringing their Bristol expansion to life.

International Women's Day: 2025

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Over recent years, we have made significant strides in improving gender diversity within our workforce. Since 2022, the percentage of female employees has increased from 38%, reaching 45.83% of our total workforce. This growth reflects an ongoing commitment to fostering an inclusive and balanced workplace. Through inclusive policies and a culture that supports gender equity, we continue to make progress in building and maintaining a more diverse, dynamic team.

gcp are a proud signatory for Women in Business Charter Bristol and have been since 2019. This charter provides an opportunity for goal setting, accountability and reflection enabling us to "embrace diversity, increase representation and empower women to thrive in their careers".

In recent review of our charter goals, we highlighted the need for unconscious bias training and an update to our Employee Handbook, both of which are now complete. We have added Gender Pay Gap analysis to our business KPIs, which are reviewed annually with trends tracked and monitored.  In 2025, we will support opportunities for those in our team who identify as women to feedback what support, training, processes and initiatives would most interest and benefit them at this current time, including mentoring.

Focus days are important, but equal emphasis must be placed on the work we are doing on the other days of the year. International Women’s Day is necessary to remind us that our journey is not yet complete.

Seasons Greetings from our growing team!

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It's been another busy year for gcp. We took some time out at the beginning of December to enjoy a Christmas meal together in Bristol.

It’s always exciting to welcome more talent and experience to our growing team. Jonathan Arnold, Molly Sharps, Rose Nicholson, Ella Coomer, Caitlin Hawkins, Luke Gathergood and Joe Wood joined us in 2024 and we can’t wait to complete our office refurbishment to make space for even more projects, desks, break-out spaces and collaboration in January.

We can’t wait to see what is in store for us and for you, in 2025.

Season’s greetings to all and wishing you a very happy New Year.

Oxfordshire Cricket and gcp Architects Announce New Partnership

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gcp are excited to announce that we have recently partnered with Oxfordshire Cricket. At gcp, we have a passion for cricket and a reputation for developing the cricket facilities that often sit at the heart of a community. We’re looking forward to supporting Oxfordshire Cricket in their strategic priority areas, which (among others) include: Engaging children and young people, transforming women’s and girls’ cricket and supporting their communities.

You can read more about this partnership here.

#cricket #architecture #design #OxfordshireCricket

Employee Satisfaction #mentalhealthawareness

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For several years, gcp have been on a journey to evolve our mental health and wellbeing initiatives, putting our team and their specific needs at the center of change.

This year marked our fourth year of running an Employee Survey, and our first year of running a separate feedback forum where staff could share all the things we are currently doing well.

We are committed to running an annual employee satisfaction survey using quality questions for benchmarking, so that we can monitor trends in satisfaction and track how any changes impact the wider team.

Following feedback from the team on this survey and via our Employee Council, we have now introduced a monthly wellbeing survey so there is less time between whole office check-ins.

Whilst this process continues to evolve, we decided that this year we would celebrate the positive things we are currently doing. We asked employees to pick out the things that meant the most to them and most supported their wellbeing at work.

We shared this with the whole team during mental health awareness week and will be adding this feedback to our website over the coming months.

It is important to us, not only to improve our offering, but to maintain the things that employees like, need, and appreciate.

Easton Community Centre Review

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During July, we undertook a small project for Eastside Community Trust, coordinating with Stacey Yelland, CEO, to create scaled floorplans of Easton Community Centre. The community centre currently has a hall, café, nursery and various offices, and these spaces provide a base for activities for everyone. These include book clubs, coffee mornings, Lego clubs, litter picking and more, which contribute to their passion for building healthy neighbourhoods.

Over a 20-year period gcp have provided periodic support to the management team at Easton Community Centre when reviewing facility improvement. This latest support has been provided as a social value contribution linked to gcp winning a contract from Bristol City Council for design work to energy retrofit high-rise flats in the city centre.

We spent a day in the community centre measuring the entire building, with a short break to sample the excellent food, and then drew the plans up in the weeks following. These plans will provide a basis for any future improvement works that the community centre wish to undertake.

Appointment: Barnsley Gymnastics Club

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Following referral by a national sport equipment provider, gcp were appointed by Barnsley Gymnastics Club to assess the feasibility of the club’s relocation.

We firmly believe that sport development needs to happen in partnership with key local actors to have maximum impact in the community. We therefore consulted with key stakeholders including the National Governing Body for Gymnastics, the Council, and the local Active Partnership to develop the feasibility study. Alongside our strategic review, we developed a project brief and cost plan to give the club an accurate picture of the investment involved to enable their ongoing growth.

Sheffield Caribbean Sports Club: Public Consultation

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On the 16th of July gcp had the opportunity to engage with the public through a consultation event for the redevelopment of the Sheffield Caribbean Sports Club (SCSC).

The project came about as Des Smith, the founder of SCSC and BBC Sports Personality ‘Unsung Hero’ at the end of 2023, gaining traction and prompting the redevelopment of the club.

It was a lively day engaging with residents, coaches, children that play at the club and several volunteers for the club. It was great to receive an overwhelmingly positive response to the flexible approach we’ve taken on the design that allows for a functional, future proof space.
Additionally, the introduction of diverse opportunities for sports at masterplan level was welcomed by the community, and we were happy to see the growing excitement for developing better opportunities for women in sports from the club as well as from the public.

We’d like to thank everyone that attended as well as the club and volunteers for giving us a taste of the welcoming community that already exists at SCSC, it is our goal to create spaces that match the inspiring nature of the people that use them.

Osterley Cricket Club Redevelopment

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Following a devastating fire in 2022, which destroyed most their clubhouse, Osterley Cricket Club appointed gcp to prepare a detailed feasibility study for the redevelopment of their ground just off Tentelow Lane in Southall. The ground is set within the historic and listed landscape around Osterley House. The site is busy throughout the year and is also the home of Cademy FC, a vibrant and successful youth football club with links to many premier league football teams. The feasibility study quickly highlighted that in order to deliver the club’s vision for the site, a comprehensive masterplan was required to allow for a phased redevelopment as funding becomes available.   

 

The preliminary planning stage masterplan design includes a remodelled site with parking improvements and ecological enhancements to support biodiversity, a new clubhouse incorporating the remainder of the fire-damaged changing block, a secondary officials’ block with sensory space, and 3 new practice batting lanes. The planning design is a result of extensive collaboration between the club, the England & Wales Cricket Board and numerous stakeholders including Ealing Borough Council, Sport England, Middlesex Cricket, Middlesex FA, The Football Foundation and specialist subconsultants.

 

The final stage of the planning stage design development is a half day public consultation event at the club on Wednesday 10th July between 12 noon and 7pm. Following feedback received from the consultation designs will be revised and developed for planning submission by September 2024.

Green light for investment by McBraida plc

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After lengthy negotiations over the final Section 106 Agreement between all parties, we received last week on behalf of our client, McBraida plc the Planning Decision Notice that backs up the unanimous committee decision in favour of the development.

McBraida plc are a tier 1 aerospace component manufacturers with production facilities in both the UK and Poland. This approval allows them to realise their long-held ambition to more than double their head office footprint in Bridgeyate, between Bristol and Bath.

Throughout the development of the planning application, gcp as lead consultant, received valuable, impartial opinions on the proposal from development control and economic development officers at South Gloucestershire Council. They provided honest, clear and unambiguous comments on the proposal to the design team that allowed the planning design to evolve in response to site constraints and stakeholder consultations to ensure this vitally important investment in high technology engineering is secured for the county, the region and the UK.

The recent signing of the 106 Agreement clears the last hurdle before the green light can be pressed for the detailed design. We look forward to picking up a conversation with the client in the next few weeks to plan the next stages for this exciting and strategically important development.

Work about to start in St Nick’s Covered Market, Bristol!

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gcp has been working with a fantastic team at Bristol City Council to reimagine the central area of the Grade 2* Listed Covered Market in the highly popular St Nicholas Markets.

The Covered Market has not enjoyed the same footfall as other parts of the market; the scheme therefore provides a new destination to encourage visitors to experience the market in its fullness.

The scheme plays with structure, materials, and recesses to create a finely balanced proposal which achieves both commercially viable floorspace and breathing space to a previously cramped site.

Our Declaration of Carbon Neutrality

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Reducing our environmental impact has always been a key consideration in our design work. From delivering the UK’s first BREEAM Excellent sports centre in 2000, to becoming Passivhaus certified in 2007, and most recently generating whole life carbon assessments in 2019.

We are used to talking the talk, but in 2023 we decided it was time to walk the walk. Through our Employee Council we floated the idea of measuring our own carbon impact with a view to reducing carbon emissions as far as possible and becoming carbon neutral.

We reviewed various certification schemes and assessment methodologies including B-Corp, PAS 2060 and EcoVadis. The pros and cons were discussed in the Employee Council before a report was prepared for the Board. We settled on PAS 2060 as our methodology for measuring carbon emissions, creating a carbon reduction plan, and offsetting.

We can now release our Declaration of Carbon Neutrality for 2022-2023.

During this time, we reported on our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, alongside Scope 3 emissions for transport. Scope 1 relates to on-site emissions, e.g. gas boilers. Scope 2 relates to off-site emissions for energy used on-site e.g. electric boiler. Scope 3 covers all other emissions on and off site including relevant upstream and downstream emissions.

Our total carbon footprint for 2022/23 was 6.2tCO2e, split into 44% Scope 2 and 56% Scope 3 emissions.

Over our historic reporting period our Scope 2 emissions have reduced year on year due to:

  • Installing an efficient HVAC unit with heat recovery to reduce carbon emissions through ventilation as well as improving office air quality.

  • Changing all office lighting to better performing LED fittings.

  • UK grid decarbonization.

In the same period our Scope 3 emissions fell sharply due to COVID, but also due to:

  • Encouraging staff to cycle where appropriate to reduce travel emissions.

  • Reducing the number of on-site meetings where not necessary.

  • Encouraging low carbon transport methods where possible.

Whilst 2022/23 saw an increase in Scope 3 emissions from 2020/21 and 2021/22 this is primarily due to an increase in staff numbers alongside business returning somewhat to the pre-COVID norm. Ignoring the impact of COVID, our Scope 3 emissions have reduced by 46% from our 2018/19 base level. This is demonstrated by the graph below.

Whilst we continue to reduce our carbon emissions, there will always be a need to offset the remaining emissions to achieve carbon neutrality. As such from 2022 we started a tree planting program.

Initially our tree planting was based on a will to do the right thing rather than data, but now we report against PAS 2060 we are monitoring how many trees should be planted annually to cover our emissions.

Our offsetting strategy is based on Pending Issuance Units (PIUs) for predicted growth of saplings rather than Woodland Carbon Units (WCUs) which cover sequestered carbon in mature woodland. gcp will monitor the survival rate and growth of the trees over the next reporting period to accurately monitor the carbon absorption.

In February 2024 gcp planted 160 trees to offset our carbon emissions for the 2022/23 reporting period. This equates to approximately 160 tonnes of carbon over the lifetime of the trees. This is far greater than what was required to offset our 6.2 tonnes of carbon emissions for the reporting period, but overachieving with PIUs allows us to achieve a real-world carbon break even point as soon as possible.

This is demonstrated in the graph below:

This demonstrates our predicted carbon emissions over the next 30 years against the real-time carbon offsets through tree planting. We can forecast that from the start of our reporting period we will be carbon neutral by 2044.

Extrapolating this in both directions, which includes a lot of assumptions, we can approximate that gcp will be carbon neutral for all emissions since conception in 1987 by 2061.

Above: gcp tree planting 2024

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The Value of Competitions: Midland Road | Bristol

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Background

In July 2023, Brighter Places in partnership with the Bristol Housing Festival launched a design competition, for a new affordable development within Bristol City center.

Midland Road is a prominent local centre, adjacent to Old Market and previous home to a paintworks, since demolished. The brief was to provide a 100% affordable / social rented development of up to 70 units.

Having previously worked with Brighter Places, our aim was to create both a destination location within the wider local community, and a design that sensitively responds to its local context and needs.

Process

For this scheme an understanding of local and broader contexts was key. We began by reviewing the typology and scale of the surrounding environment, the sites’ access to green spaces and the overall local transport links.

From this we recognized that Midland Roads presents a unique focus point of transport links, creating an idealized meeting place for residents & passers alike, with opportunity for commercial / community led interventions.

Similarly, our initial studies identified a lack of local green space links (both public and private). These spaces are critical to community growth & function, as such the provision of accessible green space was critical to the design.

Understanding the immediate context was also key. Surrounding structures presented a high density of 5+ stories, with a mostly industrial context, infilled with more modern midrise housing developments.

Our initial Massing would follow the relatively limited footprint of the site, whilst cutting out key foot / cycle connections to permeate the structure and allowing for a central courtyard to create meeting and commercial opportunities.

Looking at the opportunities & constraints available to us, we quickly identified 3 key strategies to develop:

  1. Green Spaces for all: green spaces are often a luxury in urban centers. Our aim was to create a mixture of both public and private green spaces within the scheme, by using the roofs as interconnected terraces to create over 900sqm of space for residents & a ground floor courtyard for the public.

  2. Fostering Community: modern housing often lacks community, with disconnected structures and sterile circulation. Our aim was to create a winding path laced with social spaces throughout the structure that then further connected to proposed green spaces. The aim was to create an interconnected set of communal streets to enhance interaction.

  3. Activated Streets: The site is uniquely located at the intersection between transport links, from foot to local buses. This presents the opportunity to create a local hub, the proposal would need to be open in nature, with ground floor uses that would encourage residents and non-residents alike inside.

The Design

The final design appeals to the industrial character of the site, using an exposed frame with infill patterned brick panels. The mass is broken down by circulation cut through’s at ground level, and circulation at upper levels, conjunction with the perforated forms of the flats this gives the structure a high degree of permeability. The structure itself steps down with the context, beginning with 10 stories, gradually reducing to 6 stories.

Starting at the ground level is a mixture of public courtyards and commercial units, moving up the structure is a winding path of private roof gardens & circulation paths, each flat within the block has to move up or down a maximum of one storey to access a green space.

Each flat has its own balcony, and by mixing walk up and same storey accesses, there is only a singular circulation corridor per 2 levels of flats, maximizing social opportunities to shared areas.

 

The Submission

The final design was submitted in August. Unfortunately, gcp were not selected for the final shortlist this time. Designing a dense urban proposal in the center of Bristol was both invaluable and enjoyable; an experience that we can take with us into future projects.