Capel Road, Bristol
Capel Road, Bristol
Overview
Located 5 miles north of the city of Bristol, Capel Road is an affordable housing development made up of 57 one, two, three and four-bedroom properties, including a mix of houses and flats.
Willmott Dixon and Alec French Architects collaborated to deliver this development, which was pioneered by Bristol City Council under the New Build Housing programme. This initiative emphasises the importance of providing affordable properties to meet the city’s need. Vobster Architectural worked with the design team to provide the semi dry and wet cast stone elements for this project, and sister company Taylor Maxwell supplied the facing bricks as the primary facade material.
Concept to Completion
Prior to construction the Capel Road site was unoccupied, having formerly been home to low-quality post-war council housing built using pre-cast reinforced concrete. These properties were demolished in 2012.
In their stead, dwellings of various sizes were constructed and distributed across the site, providing the spacious and light-filled accommodation that now makes up the Capel Road development. A blend of houses and low-rise flats have been included in the scheme, with the flats being integrated in a way that is almost indistinguishable from the surrounding houses.
Facing bricks and cast stone are the prevailing facade materials for this development, a positive reflection of the surrounding architecture in the local area. Vobster Architectural were engaged to supply the wet cast and semi-dry stone for this project due to their reputation for providing high quality and robust materials, designed to last.
Vobster Architectural worked with the team to deliver wet cast thresholds for the respective properties on site, creating accent features offset by a backdrop of brickwork. Semi-dry cast stone was chosen for the string courses which were used to break up the brick, creating an aesthetic feature that brings contrast and elegance to the design. The scheme is completed using local tile detailing of varying designs which were installed in the recessed porches of each property. This was in homage to Bristol’s long history of manufacturing tiles, reaching back to the 18th Century.
To learn more about wet cast stone, click here.
Project partners
