News / Housing
First homes to be built in Castle Park since before Blitz
The area we know today as Castle Park was once packed with shops, businesses, churches and homes.
Close to the remains of Bristol Castle’s south curtain wall, the first homes are set to be built here since before the area was obliterated in the Blitz.
The homes will be built above an innovative energy centre, part of the Bristol Heat Network, with a 3MW water source heat pump taking water from the Floating Harbour and using it to generate heat and hot water for local businesses and residents.
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The eastern end of what is now Castle Park, before the Second World War – map courtesy of Know Your Place Bristol
A design competition is being organised by Goram Homes in partnership with Bristol Housing Festival for the homes on the historic site, which was previously a council depot.
It is hoped that the development can be “an exemplar of sustainability and biodiversity, while also providing affordable homes to help meet Bristol’s housing crisis”.
“We are asking entrants to come up with big, bold, and creative ideas to see this project completed and our ambitions fulfilled.
“The aim is to increase the biodiversity on the site and, being so close to Castle Park, help increase the biodiversity of the whole park.
“We also want to ensure the development is as low carbon as possible, during the build, while in use and in the whole lifecycle of the building.”
Homes will be built above an innovative new energy centre on the site of a former council depot – photo: Martin Booth
Ideas for the use of the space could include a cafe or offices as well as providing new homes, with Goram Homes saying it is “important that the buildings are linked well to the open space of Castle Park”.
The council-owned housing company hope that designers “will take inspiration from around the world and explore interesting concepts like vertical forests, beehives, or other ways to protect and increase the biodiversity of the area”.
A webinar for those interested in entering the competition takes place at 2pm on November 8.
For more information, visit www.bristolhousingfestival.org.uk/projects/goramhomescastlepark
Main photo: Martin Booth
Read more: 22 things you probably didn’t know about Castle Park
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