Category: Projects

Projects

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Projects Residential

6 Kingsdown Parade, Bristol

6 Kingsdown Parade, Bristol

Residential

The site at No 5-6 Kingsdown Parade in inner Bristol was purchased by our dear friend the late Ben Hamilton-Baillie with a view to creating a new type of co-living in retirement for himself and like-minded others. Sadly he did not live to see that happen. Without its guiding light, the project faltered and the site, a former filling station of approx 1000 sq m with fine south-facing views over the city was broken up into two parts, the smaller of which now has a new house for Ben’s wife, Jennifer Hill. 

The new house occupies the site of a small and rather run-down corner house whose character was much-loved by some locally and which informed the design of its replacement. Thus the new house comprises a strong brick screen wall enclosing and protecting the house on the north and east (Kingsdown Parade and Marlborough Hill) while the south and west elevations open out onto the walled garden and to the distant views of the city and the countryside beyond. 

The house has a highly insulated, well-sealed* timber frame, clad on the north and east by a Flemmish-bonded brick wall with a Liassic limestone rubble plinth and a reconstructed rubble wall that continues westwards to join that of the adjacent site at No 5. To the south and west the cladding is render and glass and the roof carries a full array of SW-facing photo-voltaic panels.

* The frame has an airtightness of 1.2 cu m/hr/ sq m (way better than B Regs’ required 8) and an average U Value of 0.13 W/sq m/K.                              

The contractor, Dovetail specialises, as the name suggests in timber construction and the house contains several fine timber elements, notably the gently curving stair as well as being beautifully constructed generally, as we hope the pictures show.

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Projects Residential

Common Farm, Melbourne, Derbyshire

Common Farm, Melbourne, Derbyshire

Residential

Common Farm is a perfect example of the fine substantial red brick farmhouses that punctuate the rolling farmland of south Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire. Listed Grade II, its square plan with four square rooms on each of three floors nonetheless lacked a single space suitable for the focus of a young growing family. 

A remarkably helpful and responsive Local Authority and Conservation Officer helped to quickly arrive at sympathetic though substantial addition using materials and forms from the local farm vernacular to expand the house, to integrate it into the generous garden and to take advantage of the views across the fertile landscape to the nearby town of Melbourne.

As well as sympathetic Local Authority, the project was blessed with a wonderful contractor, Rich Jennings, who was a pleasure to work with; intelligent, responsive and able to produce work of the highest standard. So high in fact that the Conservation Officer asked if she could use it for demonstrations of how to work with Listed Buildings.

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Projects Residential

Water Lilies, Kingsweston

Water Lilies, Kingsweston, Bristol

Residential

In 2016 we were flattered to be approached by Dr Steffie Broer of Bright Green Futures who had recently completed a co-living scheme at The Courtyard in Lower Cheltenham Place in Bristol’s Bohemian St Werburghs. On the strength of her enthusiasm for the Clifton lido, Steffie wanted us to work on a new residential scheme on a site near Kingsweston, on the north-west side of Bristol. Little did we know what obstacles would be thrown in the way of this exciting new project on 0.5 Ha of steeply sloping brownfield land with a massive brick and concrete reservoir at its centre. Now in 2024, a new community of nearly 100 people of all ages lives in 21 houses and 12 flats surrounding a communal garden built on top of the old reservoir structure, which is now a car park.  

Delays began with Planning (which took 19 months in spite of no significant objections and widespread support) followed by the Covid pandemic, which kicked in simultaneously with the start on site in spring 2020, Brexit delays to imported goods, global timber shortages (not ideal for timber frame scheme) and complicated funding. All were finally overcome. 

The dream of a community living in state of the art dwellings gathered together in its own surroundings is finally a reality. The tenacity of both Bright Green Futures and Contractor Dove Construction were both essential to the eventual outcome. 

The homes’ shell structure completed by the Main Contractor comprise timber frames externally clad in insulation and air-tight membranes, eliminating the need for vulnerable vapour control membranes, reducing cutting and improving visible control of both insulation and membrane continuity. The resulting buildings have air-tightness of less than 2 cu m/hr/ sq m (B Regs accepts 8) and wall and roof U Values of 0.13-15 W/ sq m/ deg C.

Each house and flat was individually designed in conjunction with the owners-to-to be. Although sadly many fell by the wayside as delays took their toll, happily others were there to take their places, and now a hundred residents from babies to retirees, and all stages in between, live in a group of buildings with a genuinely “organic” feel to it, the variety and richness deriving not from the arbitrary variety of shapes and materials so beloved of the Planners, but from the different sizes, arrangements and locations of the thirty-three dwellings. Each has its own small private garden or balcony (some have both) and access to the communal garden and the Hub Building, a sort of residents’ ‘village hall’ all completely separated from vehicular circulation and the car park below the garden.

At a time when Government is rightly and belatedly looking at ways of creating affordable sustainable homes at reasonable density, (as opposed to spec house builder greenfield noddy box density) Water Lilies’ 66 dwellings per hectare, each with private gardens and all with access to a generous communal garden shows what can be done with the vision of a developer whose priorities are sustainability, community and variety as opposed to laziness, greed and monotony.

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Commercial Projects

St Albans Lido


St Albans Lido

Commercial

In Feb 2021 we were approached by St Albans City and District Council to look at options for their open air pool at Cottonmill Lane, south of the City. The pool stands next to the River Ver and is still in use, unlike virtually all of the dozens of Local Authority-owned lidos nationwide.
Like most though, it struggles to balance costs of running and maintenance and the Local Authority therefore sought to explore ways in which to resolve this. These included options to build or rebuild on substantial areas around the pool, either as associated facilities such as restaurant, spa and other facilities such as sauna and steam rooms all of which can form complimentary partners to the pool itself. There was also the possibility of a limited residential build profits from which could subsidise the costs of works to and around the pool.

We prepared a Feasibility Study with a variety of options and recommendations and occasionally we hear of possible progress. A change of Local Government to Lib Dem control in 2021 was a hopeful development but since then we have not heard.

Download feasibility study

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Commercial Projects

Worthing Lido, Worthing


Worthing Lido, Worthing

Commercial

Worthing Lido, on the sea-front was originally built as a Bandstand enclosure by Adshead and Ramsey in 1925, and had a swimming pool added in 1959  which survived until 1990, when it was decked over and converted to an amusement arcade. The horseshoe plan projects out into the sea on a forest of remarkably slim steel columns and ties, considerably corroded by the elements, chiefly the sea and the churning shingle.

 Such has been the deterioration of the supporting structure that part of the building is now off limits. A study of the condition of the supporting structure has generated several engineering proposals of considerable cost and remarkable insensitivity.


Adur and Worthing Council commissioned M&K to prepare a Feasibility Study investigating options for repairing and refurbishing the Grade II Listed building above, and giving it a viable long term future. Of the options proposed, the Council chose to further investigate the reinstatement of a pool and the refurbishment of the buildings to provide ancillary space for pool users, a spa and a restaurant. This was developed into a sketch scheme with a draft Business Plan to illustrate the long-term viability of the proposals and to consider options for the addition of measures to ensure sustainability, most importantly in the form of renewable energy systems. 

This was then taken by the Council to Public Consultation whose conclusions we await.

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Commercial Projects

Low Hall Lido, London Borough of Waltham Forest


Low Hall Lido, London Borough of Waltham Forest

Commercial

Having initially declined to bid due to the Byzantine registration requirements, we joined forces with Tate and Partners Architects (who did the registration) and won the bid to design a new Lido and sports complex on a large open site in the Lea Valley. The ambitious brief called for an Olympic size open air all-year heated pool with ancillary accommodation and a large array of sports fields nearby.  

As often with Local Authority projects, there was difficulty reconciling the political ambitions for the residents of Waltham Forest and the construction and operation costs of a state of the art Lido complex, and the project was sadly abandoned after the first stage of design work had been completed.

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Commercial Projects

The Lanes, Nelson St,  Bristol.


The Lanes, Nelson St,  Bristol

Commercial

The Lanes is a Listed Grade II former Employment Exchange building of 1931 built in the Civic Classical style. Its fine red brickwork comprises a heavily  rusticated base with two storeys above and a boldly articulated façade onto Nelson St. The site which adjoins the ancient line of the old City wall rises steeply so that the rear ground level is a whole storey (some 5 m) higher than the front. Behind the acute angle L-shaped plan an external courtyard is enclosed by a high concrete retaining wall. At the lower (Nelson St ) level  is an outside courtyard.  This slightly gloomy triangle is to be enclosed with a new roof deck at first floor level, providing an auditorium for live music below and a courtyard garden above, the latter introducing one more to a chain of small green pockets that punctuate the pedestrian route along the line of the old City wall.

The project involves a complex system of existing and new escape routes which also serve to integrate the new facilities with the reorganised spaces within the existing building.

Planning and Listed Building Consent have been applied for and granted, although work has not yet begun.

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Commercial Projects

Bristol Memorial Woodlands, Bristol.


Bristol Memorial Woodlands, Bristol

Commercial

Bristol Memorial Woodlands is a former farm north of Bristol which since its establishment in 2001 has been providing burial plots in a gradually maturing woodland setting. Several wooded fields and the well-established hedgerows between provide a variety of peaceful areas for burial and the original farms buildings have been converted into a non-denominational Chapel and Reception Room. With Planning Consent for up to 12 burials per day we were commissioned to design a second separate set of buildings to offer greater capacity. 

The brief needed to establish a completely separate access and circulation with a new group of buildings sympathetic to the existing buildings and pattern of landscape, and compliant with the constraints of the Greenbelt location. 

Consent was granted for a new Chapel re-using a number of components from a demolished chapel by E W Pugin, a new Reception Hall, a Columbarium Tower and associated pools, landscaped gardens and paths as well as additional parking.  

Work began in early 2020 with drains and ground floor slab of the Reception Hall complete before Covid intervened. Work has not recommenced.

Categories
Commercial Projects

Meadows of Peace, Thornbury

Meadows of Peace, Thornbury

Commercial

Bristol Memorial Woodlands is a former farm north of Bristol which since its establishment in 2001 has been providing burial plots in a gradually maturing woodland setting. Several wooded fields and the well-established hedgerows between provide a variety of peaceful areas for burial and the original farms buildings have been converted into a non-denominational Chapel and Reception Room. 

Several wooded burial areas have been established as also has a separate Jewish burial ground and one for Muslim burials. This last, named Meadows of Peace, has been established since 2017 although as yet it lacks dedicated funerary buildings. 

The proposal is for a single linear building, set into the rising ground so that its green roof is continuous with the surrounding landscape, and containing a sequence of rooms for prayer, ritual ablution, funerary preparation and meetings. The building is aligned so that the Prayer Room faces Mecca, while a linear arcade providing access to all the rooms faces onto a water garden which adjoins the landscape of the burial ground.  

The cemetery itself, laid out under the guidance of landscape architect Kim Wilkie comprises a series of serpentine mounds, each containing a row of graves whose burial mounds form a landscape of planted serpentine ridges with paths between, all laid out on a gentle slope and expanding westwards as burials proceed. This simple and elegant landscape is the focus of the arcaded building and the intervening water garden.  

Unfortunately (for us) the local Muslim community for whom the building is intended have expressed their preference that the project proceed under the care of a Muslim architect, thus ending our involvement.

Categories
Commercial Projects

The Abolition Shed, Prince St, Bristol

The Abolition Shed, Prince St, Bristol

Commercial

Over the years, the prosperity of Bristol has relied on some fairly unsavoury or at least now unfashionable trades, from slavery, to tobacco to the still flourishing, albeit understandably secretive defence and armaments industry. Perhaps surprisingly, given the city’s lengthy and substantial involvement, there is no Museum of Slavery, an omission that the Abolition Shed Collective hopes to put right. To this end, local historian Mark Steeds and others identified the war-damaged and now substantially derelict former Seamen’s Mission in Prince St as a suitable home.

The building however, was owned by Sam Smith’s Brewery, owners of surprisingly numerous properties in Bristol, far from their Yorkshire home. Despite numerous attempts to make contact and solicit their support, no response whatever was received until the service of notice in the Planning Application seems to have hit a nerve, and the building miraculously appeared on the market. Only to be bought by our clients down the road at the Llandoger Trow! 

Planning Permission was granted in January 2024, although in the absence of suitable funding, the project is unlikely to progress. Potential sponsors of a £2-5 million restoration welcome.