The Midland Road design competition represented a unique opportunity to engage with a number of locally based architectural practices, to tease out innovative designs for a complex, inner-city, brownfield site.
Shortlisted teams for the Midland Road competition each received a £1,500 honorarium to further develop their ideas, to participate in community engagement and to receive feedback from relevant stakeholders.
The two-stage competition sought ‘innovative and solutions-focused’ proposals for a new 100 per cent affordable housing development of around 70 dwellings on a constrained brownfield plot that has already been cleared for redevelopment 500m north of Bristol Temple Meads station.
According to a statement from the contest organiser, the judges were impressed by many aspects of BDP’s design including the curved section of the building echoing local architecture, the resident garden featuring planting areas and the use of both mechanical and electrical servicing and Passivhaus principles.
The Bristol Housing Festival, launched in 2018, has been promoting innovations such as smart technology and off-site manufacturing as a way to deliver high-quality affordable housing. The five-year programme is supported by Bristol City Council, Bristol and Bath Regional Capital, the West of England Combined Authority and social reform campaign group the Shaftesbury Partnership.
This is our first design competition of this kind and we have found it to be hugely beneficial. It’s certainly something we will be considering again in the future.
We are an affordable housing provider committed to development in the city of Bristol. With that comes the challenge of ensuring that development is sustainable, affordable for our residents, and representative of design principles that we can be proud of.
BDP will now work alongside Brighter Places and local stakeholders to develop the design further ahead of submitting a full planning application next year.
Q&A
Which design teams and talents would you like to work with in the future?
They also provide a forum for engagement with stakeholders, including local councillors and community groups, in advance of a formal planning application.
‘We are so happy to have won this competition and to be working with Brighter Places and the Bristol Housing Festival to deliver this game changing development. Healthy buildings, which are safe, warm and affordable to run, mean happy residents with a strong sense of belonging. We are sure that the design principles that will be implemented within Midland Road will set a precedent for future healthy housing in the city.’
What sort of architecture competitions are you planning to host next in the future?
Adam Darby, associate architect at BDP said: ‘Our climate positive scheme is designed around the needs of Bristol’s residents. Our use of sustainable principles will have a positive effect on the health of the people who live there and on their day-to-day quality of life.
We want to work with design teams that share the same commitment to sustainable development, but crucially, that understand the unique challenges of doing so on inner-city brownfield sites, in a way which is affordable for both the developer and our residents.
In July, GCP Chartered Architects won the festival’s contest for local architects to redevelop the site of a former school on Novers Hill. A team including AHMM was chosen to masterplan a 130ha area surrounding Bristol Temple Meads railway station in November.
The estimated £17 million project is backed by Bristol’s largest independent housing association, Brighter Places. It asked for a design that ‘complements the local area, is as climate smart as possible to reduce costs for residents and supports the city’s climate goals’.
Last year, Groupwork won two contests organised by the festival for city centre sites at Castle Park and Redcliffe Way. In 2020, Bristol practice O’LearyGoss Architects won the festival’s contest to design a £1.9 million student housing scheme for the city’s Trinity College theological school.
How did your latest architecture competition process select the right team for Midland Rd?
Why are architecture competitions like this one an important tool in your approach to delivering 100% affordable housing with ambitious sustainability levels?
Reconciling these objectives is of paramount importance, and we believe design competitions like this provide a forum through which we can identify the right design concepts, and architects that are able to share and deliver our vision for the site in question.
Brighter Places homes director Sally Gilbert said: ‘BDP’s striking and thoughtful design will help us deliver a unique development of 100 per cent affordable homes in Bristol city centre.
‘As an innovative Bristol housing association committed to providing much-needed, energy efficient affordable homes, we were impressed by the balance of comfortable living space, climate smart elements, biodiversity net gain and Passivhaus design within BDP’s proposal. We look forward to working with them over the coming months to develop their design further.
Through the competition process we were able to consider a number of different building forms and footprints and assess the potential the suitability of these for the site. We are confident that, through this process, we have landed upon a concept that is deliverable, and with an architectural practice that we are excited to work closely with through the next design stages.
BDP, the winning team – which has a local office – was selected ahead of four others to win the commission. The other finalists were Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, Pick Everard – both of which also have Bristol offices – and Bristol-based Ferguson Mann Architects and Alec French Architects.
Sally Gilbert, Homes Director, Brighter Places.
Sally Gilbert
‘I would like to thank everyone including local community representatives and groups who contributed their ideas and perspectives during the competition process with the aim of creating a scheme that brings homes to the area and reflects the character and needs of Old Market.’
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