Brooks Dye Works complete! Regeneration at the heart of St Werburghs. Bristol.

October 24, 2022 in Housing, Home Page

Brooks Dye Works sits within the dense Victorian terraced streets of St Werburghs in central Bristol. With an industrial use dating back to the 19th century and its distinctive 39m high brick chimney providing an important landmark for the surrounding area, the site is a key regeneration project in this part of the city. Acorn achieved planning approval for a development of 89 homes, new highways and public open space in 2017 and needed to deliver a complex project with challenging technical requirements. Our previous work with Acorn and our knowledge of this area of the city (illustrated by our completed projects closely adjacent to the site) gave Acorn the confidence to appoint gcp as their Architect for the following stages of the project. Brooks Dye Works has been a major part of our office life for the subsequent 5 years, as we worked closely with Acorn’s design team and Halsall Construction, the contractor delivering the site works at Brooks.

Acorn have high production values and a clear concept for their product, wanting to provide high quality contemporary homes that are attractive, flexible and efficient. These are values very much shared by gcp, and our pragmatic approach, backed up with excellent design and technical knowledge, supported the delivery of this project on multiple levels. Our principal responsibility was in optimising the design and developing the construction solutions to deliver the product Acorn envisaged. In addition, we managed the complex planning implications and discharges required by the planning approval. Our consulting team managed the energy assessment and certification of performance to ensure delivery of new homes that are energy efficient and incorporate renewable energy systems to reduce carbon emissions.

For our team, the project has strong personal connections also – anything you work on continuously for 5 years leaves a mark!

Siobhán Tarr, our Senior Technologist, has led the technical design from inception to completion, applying her knowledge and rigour to all aspects of the design. She says;

“Having grown up in Bristol I am always interested in my city and how the regeneration of different areas enhances my hometown. I have friends who live in St Werburghs and have spent many hours exploring the surrounding streets, so it was great to play a part in the regeneration of this area. I’m looking forward to exploring some higher vantage points to get a different view of the scheme and really see it nestled within the streets I already know. The chimney is a feature I love, it’s fun moving around the area and aligning it with different views of the streets and the new homes. I am so pleased to see residents moving in and making the place their own with the individuality that is so characteristic of the area.”

Colin Powell, Energy Architect at gcp, has managed the planning approvals and consents throughout the project. He says;

“We have always built our business around relationships with people and I was so pleased to work with Acorn again on this project. As a client they take a close interest in every aspect of a project, bringing a clear focus on design quality and practical solutions that I like to think is an area we excel in. I think this is possibly one of the most complex planning approvals I have managed, and keeping track of the different consents, new applications, conditions and discharges has been quite a logistical challenge. The completed project is a credit to everyone involved and as the development matures it will fit seamlessly into the surrounding community and the dense urban character of this part of the city.”

And our joint favourite moment;

“The Brooks ducks and ducklings, who waddled through the construction works on a regular basis, oblivious to the construction activities, making their way to the new Pond in Mina Park. Hopefully the residents will get to enjoy a new duckling family every year.”

Awards:

Residential Development of the Year (Bristol Property Awards 2021);

Small Residential Development of the Year (South West Residential Property Awards 2022)

Futurebuild notes by James

March 31, 2022 in Futurebuild 2022, Home Page

Generally, really useful to see some new products and services on show, with some interesting discussion topics in between.

Innovation stage

Session Title: Generation Zero – Natural timber solutions for retrofit and newbuild.

Presenter: Matt Stevenson of Eco System Technologies

Interesting points: In partnership with GenZero, they are working with the DFE to deliver healthier atmospheres within schools, through sustainable modular design.

They offer the use of natural materials in a controlled environment, which can reduce waste, maximise recycling and potential re-use potential.

The use of timber in buildings provide good quality environments that are better for health and promote well-being.

Digital Impact stage

Session title: The new Breeam Platform; data driven whole life performance.

Presenter: Dr Shamir Ghumra, Head of building performance services

Interesting points: Bre are diversifying to add useful interactive data systems to aid Breeam assessors, manufacturers, and clients during the assessment process.

One example being greater engagement and assurances for manufactures during the product development stages, this avoids unnecessary abortive work.

Keynote Stage 2

Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN) Natural Materials WG: Natural materials in practice

Passivhaus Talk 1 by Paper igloo Director, Mhairi Grant, Director.

This was a Self-build home she built with her partner, which is called Ostro Passivhaus, near Stirling.

There was a constant use of timber throughout the building, it was described as a ‘box within a box’ as the ‘inner box’ contains all the services and circulation and serves the surrounding spaces.

The home achieved passivhaus certification and technical standard section 7; sustainability gold level.

Ostro Passivhaus, near Stirling

Pasivhaus Talk 2 by Architype director, Ben Humphries.

Hackbridge Primary School, Sutton, London.

Situated next to an area of metropolitan open land and the BedZED eco-village, this offered an obvious opportunity for the architect to use natural, low-embodied carbon materials.

They adopted a timber-based palette, birch-faced plywood linings, a ‘Larsen truss’ timber frame with wood fibre insulation and sweet chestnut cladding (due to its long lifespan, reducing replacement costs).

He identified the use of pvc in schools (and generally) as being an awful crime, due to the emissions of VOCs. It’s too easily chosen for trunking to conceal services (instead they chose to use plywood, which I thought was neat).

He finished with a statement ‘If you don’t need a material, don’t use it’.

Architype are also carrying out post occupancy studies to monitor improved health and wellbeing at the school to gather feedback. They are already working other schools where they are improving performance and are always looking at other bio-based materials.

Hackbridge Primary School, Sutton, London

Investigations into whole life carbon analysis

November 11, 2021 in Sport & Leisure

gcp are always looking for ways to improve as a business. For years we have analysed the operational energy of our designs, but now we are starting to review our performance as a business by setting up our own carbon strategy which looks at tracking, reducing, and offsetting our carbon emissions. Currently we can track our scope 1 & 2 carbon emissions, however the elephant in the room for design and construction businesses currently is scope 3 emissions and specifically whole life carbon in the buildings we design.

Whole life carbon analysis is currently quite challenging due to the wide range of calculators available, and the level of detail required to accurately measure embodied carbon. Gcp have recently trialed three pieces of software to inform how we can perform embodied carbon assessments in the future. The results from one of these are listed below.

We took Foundation Park Pavilion, Swindon as the test project and ran it through the carbon assessment software to see how much carbon is embodied within the construction. We then ran the same project with a CLT frame rather than traditional construction and 70% GGBS in the concrete mix to see the impact. The conclusion was that using CLT and cement substitutes would have given a 66% decrease in embodied carbon and pushed the design well beyond the RIBA 2030 Challenge standard. [Calculations using FCBStudios carbon assessment tool].

This new form of building analysis can be implemented from Stage 0 and help to inform decisions around construction type, finishes, servicing etc. Moving forward we will be looking to integrate this analysis into our design process to better inform clients and improve the performance of their buildings.

It is all in the detail.

April 27, 2021 in Housing, Private Housing

The brickwork on Mi-Space’s Oakfield development is amazing. Really attractive bricks have been specified, and bond patterns used that showcase them at their best. There is Flemish bond between paired front doors with the alternating header and stretcher bricks in contrasting colours. The projecting brick detail also features contrasting bricks, which with the sunshine and shadow looks really spectacular. Visitors to the development will also notice that prominent corner plots feature a basket weave pattern which is an eye-catching but quite subtle detail.

gcp have prepared brick setting out details to assist Mi-Space in achieving these really great results.

www.oakfieldswindon.co.uk.

Phase 1 at Oakfield development making great progress.

March 23, 2021 in Housing, Private Housing

Fantastic progress is being made on site where Mi-Space are constructing the Oakfield development in Swindon for Nationwide Building Society. Phase 1 will see the completion of 44 houses, 12 walk-up apartments and the Hub building.

The houses and walk-ups are a mix of open market and affordable units. They are traditional masonry cavity construction of two and three storeys in height, and progress ranges from completion of ground floor slab to installation of first floor joists.

The Hub has a community room on the ground floor and 18 intergenerational apartments, for local affordable housing provider GreenSquareAccord. Construction of the 4 storey concrete frame is now at roof level.

www.oakfieldswindon.co.uk.

The Hub building with phase 1 houses in the foreground.

From the roof of the Hub building, phase 1 houses can be seen to the right with phase 3 to the left and phase 2 in the distance.

End of year blog 2020

December 24, 2020 in Christmas2020

A year like no other is coming to an end and I just wanted to say that, despite the numerous challenges presented to us, the whole team has responded magnificently demonstrating a deep-routed culture of mutual support and understanding. My thanks and appreciation go to you all. I have known for ages that it was all about the people and so I want to mention some of the ways that we have progressed as an organisation to put us in such a strong position looking forward to 2021 and the part that the individuals have played in that.

Everyone has developed a ‘teams’ persona whether it’s during a virtual rendezvous with genial GP ‘doctor’ Martin Spear, ‘cat juggling’ Esther Brown, ‘squeezed under the stairs’ whispering Michael Hanson or ‘wild man of the woods’ Jonathan Platt. Sometimes they all appear at once on screen like a mad version of University Challenge.

I thought some like borrowing the cool neutral background of a beautifully tasteful modern kitchen until I eventually realised that in Olia Kyritsi’s case it was actually her real kitchen. Some like Tom Mellor, Tom Hubbard and Matt Andrews like fading out the domestic child strewn chaos in which they obviously live while Owen Faunt either has many rooms in his house or a different selection of bold wallpapers in each. Sarah Markroum looks as though she is just about to pick up an instrument and sing us a song and Matt Bonney has been sitting next to his match pot decorated wall for most of the year.

Natalie Lock likes to share her domestic bliss with us occasionally interrupted by child or husband or both and recently we have been able to share the homes of Maria Steward, who’s husband lives, we now know, behind a door curiously located half way up the wall in her kitchen, or Siobhan Tarr who has brought the garden inside her house with her spectacularly green fingers. James Pilling resides in his person shed in the middle of a building site with bike poised for an early morning spin whilst Jon Briscoe organises our every waking hour with benevolent decisiveness and our recently distanced genial voice of reason and wisdom Colin Powell looks over us and after us.

What a dream teams team!

This year really has been full of achievement. Financially we have, more or less, broken even which has been no mean feat on its own. During a year when we have completed a refurbishment of the office, had to work in bubbles, incurred the considerable cost of converting the business into an Employee Owned Trust and set everyone up with the IT infrastructure to work fairly seamlessly from home or from Corum 2, this performance has been even more remarkable.

The year stared with James Pilling achieving a Part 1 Architectural qualification by distance learning with Oxford Brookes and ended with Esther Brown becoming a fully qualified Architect. In the middle Sarah Makroum passed her first year of Part 2, again at Oxford Brookes and Own Faunt his first year apprentice Part 1 at South Bank University, both with flying colours. Matt Bonney and Olia Kyrirtsi became qualified Passivhaus designers and Tom Hubbard became a certified Architectural Technologist. Congratulations to you all.

Shout outs go to Michael Hanson for his tireless responses to your never-ending technical queries and Michael again with Tom Mellor for masterminding the IT development and eventual delivery of a VOIP telephone system. Don’t ring us ( and expect to get transferred ) we’ll ring you back! Lastly a big mention for Esther Brown, Natalie Lock, Matt Bonney and James Pilling for boosting our social media presence to the status of influencers – who would have believed it!

And then there was the actual work!

Happy Christmas to you and yours and I look forward to eventually meeting up with you all in 2021.

Jeremy Pilling

2020 Favourites: James' Home Office

December 09, 2020 in Private Housing

“Designing (and building) my home office has been a fantastic challenge, one that has certainly developed my skill set. I feel I have a greater understanding of the challenges that are faced on site, even on a small scale, procuring materials, site logistics and sequencing has certainly been testing.

I have come out of it with a lovely, calming workspace that provides an area for focus. It is great that it is separate to the house and even though I’m only walking to the bottom of my garden it’s enough to provide the necessary separation. With the likelihood of working from home more in the future with gcp, I am lucky to have such a nice spot to show off on our weekly teams calls.”

— James Pilling, gcp

We asked everyone in the office to name their favourite project of 2020. James has had an exciting time whilst working home this year and has decided to talk about his own home project with the support of his partner @personalised_by_amy

gcp appointed to deliver 239 quality sustainable homes in Swindon.

July 17, 2020 in Housing, Regeneration

gcp are thrilled to be part of the team delivering Nationwide’s major new housing scheme in Swindon. The not for profit development will deliver 239 quality sustainable homes. The development has been designed as an intergenerational community with a mix of houses and flats, a community room, shared gardens, green spaces and links to the existing neighbourhood. 30% of the properties will be affordable. gcp are working for contractor Mi-Space, who started on site in April 2020. The first homes will be available to view in autumn 2021.

CGIs credit to PicturePlane, Metropolitan Workshop and PRP

Please take a look at the development website www.oakfieldswindon.co.uk for more information.

WAH, the new WFH? - James Pilling

May 27, 2020

A little insight to WAH (working at home), I think I took it to an extreme as I’m currently building a home office at the bottom of my garden.

My partner and I live in a two-bed Victorian terrace house in east Bristol, a short distance from my normal place of work. Prior to us moving in, the place had been rented for the last 10 years, so we’re keen to make it our own.

Whilst the gcp office is currently closed, we are using our spare room as our office space, we feel very fortunate to have a space designated for work. I have used this space over the last three years for home study, where I have recently completed my Part 1 in Architecture, a course I have been able to do with the support of gcp. This has made this transition period easy for me but I can imagine it has been a challenge for others.

We did, however, want to create a a self-contained space, separate from the home, that could be used as a purpose-built workspace. We are calling it a studio to sound fancy! I think it is important the place of work is different to our home (and ideally separate to your living space), this allows space for designation and focus.

**A bit on the design process....**

I submitted a planning application for our kitchen extension back in July last year, at this point I also included plans for a loft extension and outline plans for a studio space at the bottom of the garden. We were wary that we needed to replace the loss of existing shed space, which is very functional and quite a necessity. I’ve also accumulated a lot of tools over the years so needed some extra messy storage space (the tools have somewhat dug a hole into our budget). We finally secured planning for the extension but is unfortunately on hold due to the pandemic, a chance to start the studio!

**The build process.…**

I started by removing the shed and its base, preserving any clean (ish) stones where possible. I had done a fair amount of research into the most appropriate foundation for the type of build we wanted. I ended up using the click EcoBase grid foundation system, which provides a really strong, durable foundation which is well-drained for outdoor buildings. They are often used for sheds and even grass driveways, an alternative to a concrete base in my scenario.

Once the base and treated timber floor joist were down, I started to build the walls panels, these consisted of 89mm untreated timber studs, 9mm OSB. These would then be ready to receive 25mm timber roofing batten and the 20mm cladding.
I had a sequencing challenge with cladding the rear and side panels - as we wanted to take full use of the width of the garden. I came up with the solution to fully clad these panels, which would be temporarily secured in place, 500mm inside the eventual building perimeter. This will be fun when it comes to lifting them in place - not so easy with the social distancing measures in place!

We are dividing the space into two, two thirds will be designated for office space and one third for shed and storage space, including the mower and BBQ in the winter months.
I started to erect the front panels which would hoist the new office sliding doors. The sliding opening will be on the RHS as we have a pond just on the left of the picture. You can see the Iris’s are starting to grow again! Hopefully a nice view out of the non sliding pane.

I was inspired by the lock-up building at the Arnolfini, down on the waterfront in the centre of Bristol. I love its simple form and how its colour has evolved over time. I will be including cladding the ‘secret’ doors on the shed section.

It has been a challenge to secure materials during this period of lockdown, I can imagine the difficulties contractors must have been going through. I was eventually able to source most of the timber from a merchant in Avonmouth, which actually specialise in building horse stables.

“It finally feels like progress is being made now I have started to fix the cladding to the front elevation. The lifting of the side panel will hopefully happen soon, then I can focus on the roof and making the building watertight. We keep you updated with our progress.

If we are able to work from home more so in the future, after this whole ordeal is over, this will hopefully be the perfect space in which to design in.”