An Englishman’s home is his Castle (Park)

Barton Willmore: “For us, this project creates an opportunity to challenge and redefine the principles behind building communities, and place social value at the forefront of the conversation. Our concept centres around the idea of a terrarium, a multi-functional microecosystem that creates and nurtures an ideal environment for life. We see this terraria as a layered response to the site, embedded within it socio-economic values, community engagement, low carbon and net-zero strategies and enhanced biodiversity to create an exemplar proposal for urban living and amenity for visitors. We live and breathe Bristol and believe our proposal will create a catalyst for transformation, addressing the climate, housing and skills crisis and placing Bristol front and centre as a beacon for positive change.” – image: Barton Willmore

BDP: “We are delighted to have been selected to develop our ideas further with Goram Homes for this fantastic opportunity for the Bristol community. Our ideas present a rethinking of the design and delivery of housing for the future. BDP’s vision for the future of urban living is a categorised within ‘BDP’s Toolkit’ of principles that reshape the way we design and build our cities to provide an exemplar of sustainability and biodiversity, while also helping the city to meet its housing needs.” – image: BDP

Clifton Emery: “We collaborate within our company across design disciplines – architecture, urban design, landscape architecture and graphic design. We have spent many years honing this skill so that the work we undertake is multi-faceted, intelligent and responsive to its situation. This makes us well prepared for the physical, political, social and economic challenges inherent in all of the projects we work on. In all aspects of what we do; creativity, community, communication, diversity, the future of our planet, social responsibility, and a caring approach underpin the way we work and what we design… We’re really happy that our initial ideas were well received by the judges and that we’ve been shortlisted for such an important project in our own city. We’re looking forward to the next stage of the project and the public consultation.” – image: Clifton Emery

Groupwork and McGregor Coxall: “The site presents both historical and contemporary context – industry to leisure, defence to parkland, trade to waterside. We propose to strengthen the connection between these pairings in a strong architectural order built from structural stone and timber, broken down in scale and made permeable by landscaped gardens from roof to waterside referencing the site’s past and enabling its future. Two blocks are split to introduce a colonnaded ‘street’ connecting harbourside and gardens and a gradual stepping away of massing from the waterside to reinforce a scale of private to public frontage. A structural limestone exoskeleton defines the site’s boundary, toothed into the existing water’s edge to reference Bristol Castle’s historic defensive limestone walls, a modern design born from antiquity. The materials are traditional yet speak of contemporary innovation, alluding to the pioneering heritage of Bristol and the site’s original material history. We propose this is the next step in Bristol’s legacy of innovation.” – image: Groupwork and McGregor Coxall