Landscape Design Studio – ship shape and Bristol fashion

  1st October 2014

As part of the Masters level module Landscape Design Studio the students visited Bristol, just 45 mins away on the train from Cheltenham. We visited four different site, of which the students need to choose one on which to base their main design project. The sites this year are Temple Meads/Temple Quay (a new sustainable gateway to Bristol?); Castle Park (the main green open space for the city); Nelson Street (the site of the international graffiti festival and with the River Frome running underground in a pipe); and Cumberland Basin (the link between the Floating Harbour and the River Avon).

We walked through the city from the train station, connecting with the Floating Harbour – the large canal running through the centre of Bristol – as well as the River Avon with its 12m tidal range. We looked at the new open space in the Bristol Harbourside development by Grant Associates, sloping down to the water with an integrated SuDS system very similar to the ones in Western Harbourside, Malmo, Sweden. An excellent example of a contemporary and sustainable landscape in a high density urban context.

We took the ferry from the centre to Cumbrland Basin and back – easily the best way to experience Bristol as the city developed around it’s waterways – which took us to the fantastic vantage point at the end of the basin overlooking Clifton Suspension bridge.