Groupwork emulates lost 18th-century buildings with Bristol apartment block

For a location near St Mary Redcliffe Church in Bristol, UK, architecture firm Groupwork has designed a bronze mesh-covered residential complex that draws inspiration from structures destroyed in World War Two bombs.
The 120-apartment Redcliffe Way construction will be encased in a bronze mesh that mimics the size and shapes of earlier structures from the 18th century that had stood on the location. The construction of a parking lot was intended to be both modern development and a monument to the history of the location, which was bombed during World War II.

The desire to rebuild the bombed urban block that had once stood in front of St. Mary's in the studio sparked thoughts about nostalgia, memory, altered narratives, and creating monuments, which led us to think about meshes or cast materials that can represent the fleeting, miscast, or misremembered historical narratives. Rebuilding the streets and their forms in areas that had been bombed during World War II would create urban cohesiveness and give the locals a chance to create their own narrative. We are building neoclassical facades in the 18th-century style, but in response to the desires of the contemporary community, with transient and fluctuating illusions of empire and power. This is historical memory without sentimentality.

The complex will consist of four independent buildings connected by roof gardens and balconies, with a bronze mesh surrounding all the structures to give the impression that it is one large building. The D-shaped urban block will be built around an interior courtyard that is big enough to get enough sunshine for vegetation. Residents will also have more room for landscaping and other amenities thanks to terraces and a roof level.

While street-facing enclosures enhance the current shop streets, the ground level is mostly designated for soft and hard landscaping utilized by residents and guests. The four buildings will be partially encircled by a perforated bronze skin, giving the occupants inside some privacy and partially shielding the interiors from the sun to lessen warming and energy consumption.
The sheet alone lowers the potential uplift of the total embedded carbon from 30% solid to 70% void. Applying these oversized "ancient window" apertures lowers the material requirement even more. The bronze layer will occasionally stretch outward to serve as a canopy, terrace, or pediment and will be offset at various locations to make room for individual balconies and colonnades.

Winter gardens and balconies have different depths and stand apart from the walls, while the brass mesh that shows the elevation to the street is suspended from a supporting framework. The company, which Amin Taha founded in 2003, plans to start work on the project in 2024. Recent projects by Groupwork include the refurbishment of a 30-story stone office building and an office building from the 1970s.