Redcliffe Way, Bristol – Goram Homes with McGregor Coxall, Groupwork, Hydrock

The Redcliffe Park proposal is a sustainable housing development in the heart of Bristol. It includes 122 new dwelling units, 40% of which are affordable. The project is a contemporary synergy of landscape, architecture, ecological design, and cultural history. The Portwall car park will be transformed to activate the ground floor with commercial units, revitalizing the public realm.

 

 

Who is on the project team? 

 

Groupwork: Architect

 

McGregor Coxall: Masterplanner, Urban Design, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design

 

Hydrock: Engineering

 

Describe the context of this project and its neighbourhood and people?

 

With over 16,000 people on the housing waiting list and large numbers in temporary accommodation there is an urgent need for more affordable homes in Bristol. 

 

Rich with heritage assets, and a gateway to the city centre from both Temple Meads Railway Station and South Bristol, Redcliffe is currently dominated by highway and carparks. This grey dominant environment creates disconnection and a poor setting for the Grade 1* St Mary Redcliffe Church, as well as the other heritage assets here.

 

Redcliffe, and in particular South Redcliffe, as a neighbourhood suffers a high level of multiple disadvantage, including being in the top 1% for child poverty, with people living here experiencing below Bristol averages for access to play and green space, and higher than Bristol averages in terms of pollution and poor air quality.

 

The Redcliffe Park proposal is a sustainable housing development in the heart of Bristol, UK. The project is designed to be a catalyst for the regeneration of the Redcliffe neighbourhood and is a respectful proposal that references the architectural language of Bristol’s past while also championing materials and strategies for a sustainable future. 

 

The project is a collaboration between Groupwork, McGregor Coxall and Hydrock, and was the winner of a national design competition. It includes 122 new dwellings units, 40% of which are affordable. The project is a contemporary synergy of landscape, architecture, ecological design, and cultural history.

 

Please describe your approach to this future place and its mix of uses. How will it function as a vibrant place? How does it knit into, and serve the needs of, the wider area? 

 

The project aims to reference the architectural language of Bristol’s past by borrowing and ’mis-remembering’ historical fragments of the city. The building will be a translucent mirage of what once was, with a brass mesh wrapping around the internal volumes and connecting to the structure by balconies. 

 

The Portwall car park will be transformed into an architecture that activates the ground floor with commercial units, revitalizing the public realm. The block offers four points of entry to its inner courtyard, allowing the public to traverse the ground levels, with framed views of St. Mary Redcliffe and the river. 

 

North to south accessibility is reprioritised for active travel through closing Redcliffe Street and St Thomas Street to vehicular access. These north to south interventions are strengthened through Redcliffe Way being adapted into a public transport focused corridor, allowing the creation of an expanded neighbourhood park. 

 

The carriageway on Redcliffe Way is reduced to create a large bioswale that combines with the parkland environment to naturally manage onsite flooding and reduce urban heat. The green spine connects Bristol Temple Meads to Queen Square providing stimulus for further investment and innovation in the area. 

 

The historical icon, St Mary Redcliffe Church, is embraced by the park and connected through a vibrant public plaza that acts as an intersection for the existing and future community to use. A public forum for socio-cultural celebration, an interface between the new and old and a platform to unify the park and architecture as one.

 

What is the environmental impact of the project? How will the carbon use and material impact of the development be mitigated? What is the sustainability strategy? 

 

The Redcliffe Park project aims to reduce energy consumption, promote biodiversity and sustainable food production, and create a safe and secure environment for residents. It starts from the site-wide vision where grey roads are transformed into nature-based parkland corridors that absorb water at source, mitigate urban heat, and sequester carbon. 

 

Perforated screens allude to past architectural facades while aiding efficiency. Operable folding panels allow the inhabitants to control the amount of natural light reaching the inside of the building, reducing solar gain and energy needed for cooling measures. 

 

The perforated design, depending on the size of perforations, can control the amount of natural light reaching the inside of the building. Larger perforations will allow more natural light to pass through the cladding and can achieve the required daylight levels as per BREEAM standards (2% ADF), but will still protect the areas from direct sunlight.

 

Most noise impacted residential dwellings will be protected through winter gardens. The winter gardens will provide an additional glazing layer and provide a buffer zone to the worst-affected properties. Single glazed ‘wintergarden’ treatment to balcony balustrades and screening will reduce acoustic penetration to affected apartments.

 

Annual rainfall is normally far more than intensive green roofs can consume, therefore trees with root balls of around 900mm placed at structural perimeters to avoid slab and cost increases will help absorb 100% of annual rainfall. 100W solar powered pumps are sufficient to irrigate soil on a timer eliminating the need for water attenuation tanks, basement structures and heavy pumps.

 

Describe the social impact of the project: How will this future place contribute to the economic, environmental and social wellbeing of its citizens? 

 

Redcliffe Way is transformed into an iconic, integrated neighbourhood park that is sensitively intertwined within the social, cultural, and environmental fabric of Redcliffe. A thriving ecological spine that unifies Bristol Temple Meads with Queens Square through a multifunctional public park for all. Where living replaces grey, parking changes to park, travel becomes active and air is cleansed.

 

A living future, Redcliffe Park symbolises a bold new beginning, where Redcliffe Way is reimagined through a contemporary synergy of landscape, architecture, ecological design, and cultural history. An architectural emblem of sustainability. A new south facing civic plaza unifies St Mary Redcliffe with the animated city and biodiversity becomes an ecological catalyst to place prosperity.

 

Mid- level terraces connect vertically to the courtyard through overflowing climbers that lead towards a productive roof garden, that provides access to fresh and seasonal food in a biodiverse space for residents to enjoy. The quantity of roof level productive garden allows for all residents to have a good portion of their weekly fruit and vegetables intake. 

 

Similarly, café and ‘hot-desk’/café table workspace can be occupied and operated by those residents wishing to work from ‘home’ but be within social space. Also open to a paying public to cover running costs. This model can be initially run as a meantime space and if successful expand to become a local shop and restaurant before the actual redevelopment of the site occurs.