Site: R1 Wapping Wharf , Bristol
Client: Beaufort Homes Ltd
Accommodation: 123 dwellings
Client: Beaufort Homes Ltd
Accommodation: 123 dwellings
Scheme for 8 houses and 115 apartments. The site strategy maximizes views from every apartment across and along the waterfront whilst retaining views from the existing houses on Cumberland Road. Semi Basement carparking and integrated landscaping provide a secure environment appropriate to the site’s location raised on a plinth above the historic steam railway alongside and the busy dock floor.
Although this landmark scheme was not built, it is prominently featured as the only unbuilt scheme in the definitive book "Bristols Twentieth Century Buildings" by Tony Aldous published by Recliffe Press Ltd
"One scheme widely praised by commentators- Bruges Tozer's proposal for a key site at Wapping Wharf, opposite Harbourside- fell victim to what in my view were the misguided objections of local people and the failure of the elected councillors to support real architectural quality. That scheme proposed twin, rather sail-like buildings rising to seven storeys in front of the cliff on which stand the 19th century villas and terraces of Cumberland Road. The residents believed their views and sunlight would be seriously diminished; the architects believed they had succeeded in fitting in the required volume of housing in a way which diminished that loss. The developer, Beaufort Homes, then commissioned designs from another respected practice. The irony is that, while it promises to be a stylish, well put together development, this new scheme may well cut out more views and sunlight than Bruges Tozer's "twin peaks"."
-Tony Aldous
-Tony Aldous