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BUILDING PROJECTS
COPPER BUILDING BRISTOL
A copper partner for corten
Phase 2 of a major residential development in Bristol is an industrially inspired block of apartments faced in copper, designed to complement a former tobacco company HQ. James Parker reports
erguson Mann Architects (FMA) were appointed to design Urban Splash’s 422-apartment Lakeshore residential scheme in Bristol in 2003. The first phase includes the refurbished former UK headquarters of tobacco giant Imperial Tobacco, Imperial House, a 1970s Grade II-listed office designed in corten steel by internationally renowned practice SOM. Straddling a lake, within 10 acres of parkland, alongside a retail park, the building now houses 127 spacious apartments that benefit from the original architecture, with high ceilings, full-height windows, and balconies. There are a further 143 in the refurbished low-rise podium beneath, and 16 in a converted adjoining east wing overlooking the lake and restored landscape, including an orchard and new allotments. Sitting between the corten building (which includes 36 apartments allocated for tenants of Housing Association Aster Homes) and the retail park, but lying perpendicular to it, is a large new addition. A long, rectilinear and copper-clad structure sits over a newly constructed three-storey car park, housing 136 apartments. Simply titled ‘Copper Building,’ this striking edifice replaces and takes cues from the demolished Imperial Tobacco cigarette factory which previously sat on the site. It also provides a complementary materiality to the corten steel which in turn enhances the robust semi-industrial appeal of the development as a whole.
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The project architects Ferguson Mann say that “without the factory building, the north edge of the site felt incomplete, so we wanted to create a design that would
ADF DECEMBER 2020
reference the previous building in form and language.” The new form encloses and provides a punctuation to the site along the road which divides it from the retail park, and completes the approach and entrances to the existing building by integrating entrances across the site.
Genesis
FMA had a track record of working with Urban Splash on similar major refurbs, including working on an array of “fantastic listed buildings in Plymouth,” project architect Nick Brown tells ADF. In 2003, the developer purchased the derelict site in the south west of Bristol, and FMA were appointed to help “bring it back to life.” Phase 2 was a Design & Build contract with FMA working for Urban Splash, before being novated to contractor WRW Construction.
FMA has a strong history in the residential sector generally, across a wide portfolio of projects from masterplanning to single bespoke homes, and larger apartment developments such as the Lakeshore scheme. The context for the project is a high need for good quality homes in the areas, especially ones with large areas of external green amenity space, says Brown. One of “countless challenges” on the
project, reports the architect, was a site that was difficult to develop. He says that the Copper Building element itself became a problem when the overall project had to be split into several phases due to the 2008 recession. However, the architects were keen to work with Urban Splash again, Brown describing them as a “visionary
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