Sustainable Bristol

Rethinking Castle Park

Posted on 05 May 2010

Architecture students at the University of the West of England (UWE) recently completed a year long exercise studying Castle Park in the centre of Bristol.

Today a much loved green space in the heart of the city, the area of course started life as Bristol’s medieval castle, before being rebuilt as additional town centre quay side merchants housing, and even in the 1970s used as a shopping centre car park.

The students looked at regeneration to ‘repair the edges’ of the space, with the reuse of fringe building designs that would improve community use of the area, protect and enhance the green space, and even improve links across the dual carriageway that dissects the City Centre from Old Market.

A key goal was to encourage more people to explore and visit the park by providing pathways into the park and structures that encouraged relaxation or social activities.  The students also worked closely with a professional landscape gardener to understand how their architectural plans could incorporate and protect green spaces within the park.

Posters of the student’s project work and conceptual plans were exhibited in Bristol’s Architecture Centre who also hosted a debate in February. The debate attracted a wide audience, including students, developers, community groups, architects, landscape gardeners and academics.

Practitioners and students also discussed whether the current Broadmead Shopping Centre car park could be replaced with a civic building that was entertainment focused, rather than primarily commercial, to further enhance the space.

Roger Mortimer explained a design option to widen roads, add a fine line of trees and then transform them into a shared surface, with no cars after 10am from Bristol Bridge to Wine Street.