Rupert Street Planning Consent

New Landmark Project Approved

Our Rupert Street project was granted planning permission subject to legal agreements to provide 249 co-living residences and 328 student bedrooms alongside commercial and community spaces and public realm enhancements to Rupert Street and Lewins Mead. It was great to hear such positive comments on our design from the committee who went on to unanimously approve the proposal.

Co-Living as a housing model isn’t new to Bristol (our Project at Redcross Street is nearing completion on-site) but last night two hugely significant decisions at the Development Control Committee will bring affordable, high quality city-centre living with excellent support facilities to a much greater number of residents.

The team at Alec French Architects has put together a really unique building that resolves a great number of technical, spatial and architectural challenges within a rich envelope that gives back high quality of place to the city. We look forward to delivering this project over the coming years and extend huge thanks to our client and consultant team.

 

 

 

 

 

Alec French have recently submitted the Raleigh Road planning application for 106 homes of mixed types in Southville Bristol. The project consists of 3 and 4 storey town houses and 2 apartment blocks laid out to match the urban grain of the Victorian Southville Terrace houses. Using the old site, which was a large low-density care home, will add more characterful houses to the already vibrant Southville area.

 

See the full project by clicking the button below:

Raliegh Road

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alec French have been successful in their competition bid for the Midland Road project for Brighter Places. AFA have been invited to continue this unique project onto the next stage.

As a practice we have always been interested in the spaces and places around our buildings. The impact they always have on the local community is a key driver to generating the architectural response and the design is positively influenced by the input of those communities through further consultation.

Our scheme was the response to a very challenging brief to provide around 70 new affordable homes on an irregular brownfield site in Old Market. Our approach focused on creating deliverable, stacking units that enabled the design of a set of positive and curated communal spaces between the blocks. It is most obviously reflected in the vertical decks, that are not just circulation, but a place of community exchange and synapse. Key aspects addressed in our design include dual aspect, refuse and cycle storage, amenity space, daylighting and sunlight as well as privacy for residents and co-design opportunities.

Sustainability
We understand sustainability in the widest sense of the word. The elements we address are focused on the residents and the wider carbon spend. They provide a user-focused exemplar that can be repeated throughout the city.

  • Wellness – green spaces, food production, daylighting and addressing loneliness
  • Energy – reducing fuel poverty through driving down demand
  • Carbon – tight and intelligent management of carbon spend in construction and use

 

The Concept


1.

Three Point Blocks and a Bike Shed set out the street-scape with resident uses lining the principal entrance.

2.

Stepped Massing maximises daylighting and extending the bike store creates a community play-space above.

3.

Linking infrastructure creates active access and community use buildings bring life to the spaces.

Delivering Innovation


Concept Design 3D Images


 

The Apple Tree


 

 The SS Great Britain Trust is now consulting the public on its ambitious plans for the Albion Dockyard.

The plans, developed by Alec French Architects, are to revive the existing working dockyard into a vibrant extension to Bristol’s number 1 attraction, the SS Great Britain.

The key project drivers are as follows:

  • Save and restore a Grade II listed dock
  • Create a world-class maritime heritage attraction
  • Maintain a working shipyard
  • Enhance the historic harbourside
  • Deliver STEM learning for future engineers

The project will see over 200 years of history brought back to life, including the reconstruction of Brunel’s PS Great Western and the reinstating of a clock tower that once stood on the site.  The plans also contain proposals to relocate and restore Brunel’s Swivel Bridge and for a new café/restaurant, an immersive courtyard, a STEM education centre, an amphitheatre within the dry dock.

If you’d like to find out more, check out the SS Great Britain website here. 

 

 

PS Great Western Perspective Section

 

 

Proposed New Spaces & Café Restaurant Perspective Section

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A planning application has been submitted for a new tower in the city centre in the Lewins Mead district, to provide co-living and student accommodation above a replacement public car park. The site is the existing 1960’s NCP car park on Rupert Street which currently has space for 498 cars, two shops and a redundant petrol station. The current street frontages onto Rupert Street and Lewins Mead are amongst the most unpleasant to walk by in the city centre.

In the new scheme the ground floor will provide an entrance foyer for residents accessed via colonnades on Rupert Street and Lewins Mead, along with amenity spaces and two community/commercial units, and an off-road internal loading bay. The residential amenity space includes gyms, fitness suite, cinemas, collaborative working spaces, laundries, lounges and communal dining rooms. At Level 7 there are extensive landscaped roof terraces and at ground floor on Rupert Street the building is set back to allow good quality public realm. The building has separate accommodation in 249 co-living studios providing homes for young people who need affordable city centre accommodation, alongside 577 student rooms in a mixture of studios and cluster flats. The scheme will be operated by Student Roost who already run a similar smaller facility in Bristol at Zinc Works. The new NCP car park will provide space for 400 cars including 40 electric charging bays initially and future provision for 200.

 

Visualisation of Rupert Street Elevation

 

The design of the building is inspired by the eccentric ‘Bristol Byzantine’ style of the mid-late 19th century which was used on the grander commercial buildings of the age, including The Granary on Welsh Back, where Gothic and Romanesque arches are deployed with Moorish patterning.

The form of the building has undergone much refinement following consultation with the city planners and Design West. There is a Townscape Visual Impact Assessment which demonstrates the impact of the building on key views. The location is felt to be ideal for a tall building, being the missing centre of a cluster of tall buildings which largely screen the new proposal.

 

Visualisation of Level 07 Courtyard

 

Building Massing Strategy Diagram

1. Existing car park footprint
2. ‘H’ block plan
3. Reduce height of East block to avoid ‘canyon effect’
4. Shear East block due to culvert
5. Focus on public realm & entrances
6. Step blocks back to create top, middle and bottom
7. Accentuate the top
8. Byzantine arches and elevational design
9. Car park and top decoration
10. Focus on external amenity green space
11. Final design

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A big thanks to all those who came out to give us feedback on our proposal for Freestone Island which shows proposals being brought forward by Unite Students, the UK’s leading student accommodation provider, for the redevelopment of the Freestone Island site in the Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone. The site is bounded by the Great Western Railway to the north, Gas Lane to the south west, and Kingsland Road to the east.

The proposal provides:

  • 600+ bedspace purpose built student accommodation
  • Public spaces around existing locally listed Kingsland House and between the new buildings
  • Active frontages with commercial space along Kingsland Road
  • New pedestrian linkage running east to west

Public Realm

The site arrangement has been carefully configured to maximise the public realm between blocks and assist safe movement from site entrances and open spaces, through building fabric to communal spaces and up through residential levels.

The proposed site creates:

  • New accessible pedestrian and cycle link running east /west through site + additional link running from the Dings pedestrian tunnel north/south along western boundary
  • Aspiration to improve the tunnels between our site + the Dings neighbourhood
  • Improved connectivity through wider area

Building Form:

  • Set back at street level widening pedestrian footpath along Kingsland Road
  • Active frontages along Kingsland Road with provision of commercial units
  • Primary access to three accommodation blocks via a main entrance located off newly created public realm in southern section of site
  • Central first floor podium providing external amenity space for students
  • Feature staircase at ground level to link to first floor external space

 

 

Elevational Study

As part of the design process, the design team initiated an elevational study that aimed to create dynamic and interesting facades from a standard monotonous student housing elevation. Due to the windows always needing to be in the same place, these elevations can be very tricky to deal with. The design team studied many different precedents and elevation types before starting with their own designs. Orientation, traffic, noise, materials and access were all considered when drawing up these ideas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Public Consultation

7th September 2022

 

 

 

 

 

 

Planning Permission & Listed Building Consent Granted

Georgian Terrace

Formally owned by Bristol City Council and most recently occupied as a school, the 1970 red spar faced concrete panel building at No. 7 Redcross street features a grade II listed façade – all that remains of a former Georgian terrace which once spanned the sites full width. Although much altered the façade was part of one of the earliest Georgian residential terraces in Bristol and the birth place of Sir Thomas Lawrence PRA.

The site, located on Redcross Street in Old Market, Bristol occupies an area of approximately 690sqm. Situated within the boundary line of the Old Market Conservation Area the site sits adjacent to St Matthias Park.

Faced in ashlar stone the façade is all that remains of an original Georgian terrace dating from c.1714. The retained façade is historically and architecturally significant and contributes to the character of the street. The design intent is that the listed façade will be retained as part of the proposal. So too will the concrete building that frames it. An additional floor, stepped back from the line of the listed façade is proposed. The proposed 4th floor will be a discrete addition, and subservient to the terrace.

 

Site Analysis Diagram

 

Ground Floor & First Floor Plans

 

 

Co-Living Scheme

The Co-Living model that is proposed offers a way of living that is focused on community and convenience. Residents will have access to generous naturally lit space whilst having fully furnished private spaces. The floor plans have been arranged with generous studio spaces around an open plan communal central space. Generous studio spaces are to be designed to provide comfortable accommodation to all residents. Communal spaces, kitchens, lounges, commons rooms and gym will be provided for the enjoyment of all residents.

The proposal introduces a palette of durable, high-quality materials that are familiar to existing materials within the Old Market Conservation area.

 

Contextual Section

 

 

 

 

 

Plans have been approved by the council for our very challenging scheme at Trinity Road, Old Market. The plans propose the demolition of the existing red brick police station and convert the site into 104 new apartments and new Neighbourhood Station. The project, submitted on behalf of the Guinness Partnership, will provide 100% affordable housing on a well located brownfield site.

Plan of Level 01

The Design Team worked hard to overcome the challenging site constraints which included accommodating the noise from the popular music and arts venue, the Trinity Centre which is located opposite the site. Bedrooms were placed at the rear of the apartments in order to create an acoustic barrier between residents and event noise. Living rooms and kitchens, that are mostly used during the day, are placed to the front and the external wall incorporates a high performance acoustic barrier and upgraded glazing to ensure that the two uses can co-exist within this vibrant and developing neighbourhood.

The scheme also provides a fantastic new courtyard garden for residents, a medium-sized commercial unit to extend the Old Market retail offer, and a new public realm complete with cycle paths, pedestrian friendly spaces and the celebration of a key existing tree on the corner of the site. 

 

Diagram plan showing noise strategy

 

See more here

 

 

 

AFA have formally been appointed by the SS Great Britain Trust to develop plans towards a Planning Application for the preservation and redevelopment of the Albion Dockyard.

This hugely ambitious project will extend this world class heritage experience into a much larger site and provide far-reaching benefits for the city and wider region.

We are delighted to be continuing our relationship with the Trust and are very excited to see how these proposals develop and evolve over the coming year.

For more info on the Albion Dockyard Project see here:

SS GREAT BRITAIN

 

See the related projects such as SS Great Britain, Being Brunel and the Brunel Institute by below:

 

Developing volumetric concepts for a rural single dwelling.

With most of our work in the city, working on this scheme set within a protected woodland with views opening out into the surrounding rural landscape was a real treat. Anchoring two rural forms to significant trees within the site, the building creates major internal spaces and minor infill with legibility and clarity.

 

 

 

 

Proposals for a large retail space in Dhaka start to take shape.

We have recently been working on some exciting proposals situated within and around Dhaka. Working with Arup, our proposal for a suburban shopping centre utilises an open atrium space rising through the central core of the volume to facilitate ventilation and provide a comfortable and controllable internal environment. The external façade provides solar control by layering mesh panels perforated with traditional textile patterns.

Planning permission has been granted for our project with The Bristol Bike Project on Stapleton Road.

We are excited to announce that we have received planning consent for @BristolBikeProject’s proposed relocation to the co-operative’s new accommodation on Stapleton Road. It’s been fantastic to help such a wonderful local organisation who work to encourage cycling across the city and we wish the project the best of luck in their move.

We’re hoping this new space will give the charity an ambitious home for its next chapter.

More information about the project can be found on the Bristol Bike Projects website: https://thebristolbikeproject.org