Regional focus

the UK’s former second city is : ‘A city with self-belief and swagger’ almost devoid of exceptional modern buildings. With its architect mayor focused on regeneration and the city’s The city’s lacklustre built environment is the result of a new arena, Bristol has a new buzz about it, writes Tom Ravenscroft legacy of missed opportunities, the most notable being bristol Led by its first elected An emerging architectural students. New studios have set Stefan and Günter Behnisch’s mayor, architect and former community, led by the resurgence up (including Smith Maloney Harbourside Centre for RIBA president George of the Architecture Centre, Architects, this week’s New Performing Arts, abandoned in Ferguson, Bristol’s vibrant which relaunched in May 2012 Practice, page 20); AHMM and 1998, which ‘would have had a music, festival and street art following a major overhaul under BDP both have offices in the massive effect on perceptions scene (made famous by ) the leadership of Architectural city; and Bristol-based Stride of Bristol’, according to Ashley gives the impression of a Review associate editor Treglown has risen to number 10 Smith of Smith Maloney. city on the up. Earlier Rob Gregory, has been in the AJ100. Completed in 2011, this year, the local bolstered by the Yet, despite its vibrant the museum also Architecture Centre focus on election of the mayor. scene, Bristol does not have a demonstrates a lack of ran an exhibition BRISTOL Following the closure reputation for great buildings. architectural confidence. A called Bristol: of Bristol University’s While Pevsner described Bristol retrofit of a 1950s transit Ambitious City. architecture as a city that ‘reveals its charms shed by Australian practice ‘[There is a] genuine department in the slowly’, Elena Marco, associate LAB Architecture Studio, the T f sense of a city with self- early 1980s the city was head of architecture at the UWE, o project suffered from a council belief and a little swagger,’ says left without an architecture describes it as an ‘attractive city’ U-turn from ‘transformation’ to nscr Bristol-based architect Tom school until UWE established with ‘no real wow architecture’. refurbishment. The completed ave

Russell, founder of Tom Russell its department in 1996. Over With the exception of Charles m r building was described by Architects and a former lecturer the past five years, UWE’s Holden’s Grade I-listed central o Gregory as ‘a rather mashed-up at the University of the West of architecture school has doubled library, and Percy Thomas and schizophrenic place that, England (UWE). in size from 300 to 600 Partnership’s Clifton , ABOVE: t regardless of the fine views it

16 theaj.co.uk 29.08.13 opens up, fails to maintain any Having already been named architectural coherence inside European Green Capital for 2015, The main artery and out’ (AJ 07.07.11). Although Ferguson says he is placing a ‘great the museum is undoubtedly emphasis on the development of a into the city dumps popular, attracting 50,000 visits coordinated spatial plan’ for Bristol visitors into the a month, the council’s ambition (see interview, page 19). blank, defensive for M Shed pales in comparison Key to Ferguson’s city plan with, for example, the brashness are ‘first impressions’. The main external wall of a of 3XN’s Museum of Liverpool, artery into the city centre, the shopping centre which opened a month later. M32, dumps visitors into the Architects are pinning their blank, defensive external wall hopes on Ferguson to break of Chapman Taylor’s shopping Zone, that has the biggest through the city’s conservatism. centre, . And the potential for future development. According to Martin Sutcliffe, main station, Temple Meads, The cornerstone is the proposal director of BDP’s Bristol office, through which 9 million to provide Bristol with a 12,000- ‘the election of the mayor is passengers pass each year, is in an seat arena on a former diesel creating a buzz about the city area of commercial development depot site adjacent to the station. when you travel’ – both nationally disconnected from the city centre Ferguson intends to have the and internationally. It is a buzz by a mile of confused road and arena completed by the end of that Ferguson is keen to capitalise pedestrian routes. his first term in May 2016, and on when seeking investment. With Edward Cullinan’s £250,000 of Bristol City Council Ferguson’s victory in the polls Harbourside masterplan almost funding has been approved for as Bristol’s first elected mayor has complete, it is this area around development. However, Bristol placed architecture at the forefront the station, located in the new, residents and architects are of thinking about the city’s future. 70ha Temple Quarter Enterprise understandably cautious; plans for the arena were originally announced in 2003, with £13 million spent on purchasing and clearing the site. HOK Sport (now Populous) was chosen as the architect, before the scheme stalled in 2007 due to rising costs. Plans to improve the Grade I-listed station itself are also under way, described by Patrick Hallgate, route

1 managing director for Network Rail Western, as ‘fundamental to the future success of the enterprise zone’. Electrification of the South-West mainline is set to complete by 2017, which,

p along with new Intercity Express 2 trains, will reduce journey times to London by 20 minutes. Network Rail is also seeking

y design grou government funding to provide t ‘platform accommodation for trains heading to London’, with Brunel’s Passenger Shed, y council ci

t currently a car park, mooted to be Temple Meads enterprise zone returned to its original use. ol ci

1. Bristol Temple Meads t 2. Potential site Outside the enterprise zone, ris b major developments involve >>

Aerial photography29.08.13 © Blom Pictometry 2012 17 © Crown Copyright and database right 2013. Ordnance Survey 100023406 Regional focus

Clockwise from right Temple Meads station; Cabot Circus at the end of the M32; Twenty/ten by Rob Gregory and Paul Halford; Colston’s Girls’ School Smith Maloney Architects earlier by Walters this year says: ‘It feels like there is & Cohen; real potential in Bristol. Within a Lakeshore, by week of setting up we had already Ferguson Mann; been asked to quote for five Stefan and projects.’ Günter Shankari Raj Edgar, known T Behnisch’s f o as Shanks, agrees. She founded abandoned scr Nudge Group four months Harbourside ven ago due to a ‘massive gap in ra Centre for

m the market’, as ‘no one is doing o Performing Arts t anything innovative in the city’. But Shanks also says changing the views of clients may be a challenge. ‘The network of clients based in Bristol and the South- West willing to spend money [only] use well-established architects,’ she says. One of these ‘safe hands’ and the city’s largest practice, Stride en

t Treglown, is aiming to break out ek t

i of this regional role. Chairman David Hunter believes that ‘there arch shouldn’t be any reason why we

sch can’t get this practice to the status ni h e of a national player’, something b that would surely benefit the both of the city’s football clubs. Bristol Royal Infirmary and Phase one of the practice’s city’s architectural scene. Earlier this month Bristol City BDP’s works at Southmead Wapping Wharf scheme on a A true big-hitter, AHMM has submitted plans for the £40 Hospital due to complete long-term brownfield site behind located a ‘satellite resource’ in the million redevelopment of Ashton this autumn. the M Shed is due to start on , a mixed-use Gate, designed by KKA, should On the housing front, Phil site later this year, following a building saved from demolition Populous’ Ashton Vale stadium be Bevan, who heads up the £12 million investment from by Ferguson. Ceri Davies, an scuppered by a town and village residential sector at AWW the Homes and Communities green application. Bristol Rovers (winner of the 2013 AJ100 Best Agency as part of the Get Britain has received planning permission Place to Work – South West Building programme. Attracted ‘It’s not about for an Arturus-designed 21,700- award), has noticed an increase by Ferguson’s ‘can-do attitude to conquering the seat stadium within UWE’s in the level of enquires in the urban regeneration and, above, campus, which is also undergoing past year, as has Mark Osborne, all, his enthusiasm for self-build’, South-West – it’s a major works, masterplanned by director at another of Bristol’s Kevin McCloud’s HAB Housing lifestyle choice’ Stride Treglown. stalwarts, Alec French Architects. is intending to open its first office In addition, both of the city’s He believes that writing-down by in the city later this year. AHMM’s Ceri Davies hospitals are being redeveloped, developers of the value of plots is Young practices are optimistic. on its Bristol office with work continuing at the opening up land for development. Natasha Smith, who co-founded

18 theaj.co.uk 29.08.13 q&a with bristol mayor george ferguson

How will Bristol’s Do you still believe in the built environment be X-listing of buildings, and improved by the end which would you X-list? of your first term? Yes! There are a few buildings By 2016 we will have made around Temple Meads Station significant improvements in that take the biscuit. housing, which has fallen to an all-time low. We will also have Do you still expect the Bristol started the changes to Temple Arena to be completed before mark bolton Meads Station and the enterprise the end of your first term? zone, including construction We are on course for an end of the arena. My real target is of 2016 completion, opening 2020, if I am re-elected in 2016 in 2017. Furthermore the two – by which time I hope to have football stadium developments repaired the centre of the city should also be completed, or and to have re-connected the be well on their way by 2016. station to the centre. This is all part of a greater spatial plan for How important is bringing a the city that I’m preparing. My high-speed rail link to Bristol? greatest physical emphasis is on This is vitally important – and greening the city as the legacy for what is more, electrification by dennis gilbert/view European Green Capital 2015. 2017 is far better value than HS2. It will give us a regular 80-minute How do you intend to make connection to London. I Bristol the UK’s number one am working closely with destination after London? Cardiff on strategic transport I am doing all I can to bring issues. We need high-speed attention to Bristol’s great electrification to Birmingham history, environment, quality of to connect us into HS2. life, creativity and diversity, and am working closely with our What are you actively doing to major institutions to make sure support architects in Bristol? we develop the necessary skills Encouraging procurement to attract inward investment. of local contractors and nick brown professionals as a more associate based in Bristol, says the of caution: ‘While Bristol is no What is your main achievement sustainable way forward, for move was ‘not about conquering longer a graveyard of ambition, as mayor so far? instance in the construction the South-West’, but a ‘lifestyle the easy-going feel of the place Securing European Green of schools, with the intention choice’. The office has full does permeate the working Capital and changing the of building the sort of ownership of projects, often in culture here.’ political dynamics by appointing regional architectural culture London, with Derwent’s White With an thriving young a six-person cabinet made up that Manchester has done Collar Factory in Old Street run architecture scene, revitalised of all four parties represented so successfully – without from Bristol. architecture centre, a university on the city council. excluding other national and Now six years old and growing, growing in stature and an international architects from AHMM’s Bristol office seems to architect as mayor, it seems that, How do you respond to claims involvement in key projects be proving that this relocation if ever there was a time for this the city doesn’t have an overall of resources can be managed ‘ambitious city’ to realise its plan for its built environment? What are the advantages without a reduction in design potential, it’s now. In the words of I would largely agree – to the city of having an quality. It will be interesting to Stride Treglown’s David Hunter: which is why I am putting architect as mayor? see if other London-based firms ‘It would be a huge shame great emphasis on the Clearer decision making, greater follow suit. if Bristol doesn’t grasp these development of a coordinated confidence and greater national n But Tom Russell adds a word opportunities.’ spatial plan for the city. and international attention.

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