{"id":646490,"date":"2021-12-06T08:49:11","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T08:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/?p=646490"},"modified":"2021-12-06T09:27:33","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T09:27:33","slug":"retrofirst-stories-prps-later-living-plans-for-listed-1960s-steiner-school-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/retrofirst-stories-prps-later-living-plans-for-listed-1960s-steiner-school-building","title":{"rendered":"RetroFirst Stories: PRP later-living plans for listed 1960s Steiner school building"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

With up to 40 per cent of carbon emissions coming from the construction industry, the profession needs to find ways of adapting the type of buildings it designs, and fast. The default option for any project should be to look at adapting and reusing existing buildings, one of the key demands of the AJ\u2019s RetroFirst campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our series seeks to celebrate those projects that give buildings anew future or save from ruin or demolition.<\/p>\n

Today Jenny Buterchi, a partner at PRP Architects, talks about early plans to create a net-zero later-living community in and around a listed, Alec French-designed, former Steiner school built in 1966.<\/p>\n

Tell us about the project.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"

Jenny Buterchi<\/p>\n\t

<\/p><\/p><\/div>\n

St Christopher\u2019s Square is on the 2ha site of the former St Christopher\u2019s School in the Westbury Park area of Bristol. The school was founded in 1945 by Catherine Grace as a private residential Steiner school for children with learning difficulties. It began with just six pupils and expanded over time to a peak of 50 children and young people before closing in March 2020. Our client FORE Partnership subsequently acquired the site in May 2021 with the aim of creating an ultra-sustainable later-living community, in partnership with operator Amicala and development manager First Base.<\/p>\n

At the heart of the site sits the Grade-II listed Grace House<\/a>, which was built as a detached teaching block in 1966 and designed to reflect Steiner principles. The proposals will see Grace House restored and transformed into a new community hub, along with the sustainable refurbishment of five existing Victorian lodges to create high-quality apartments.<\/p>\n

A new-build element will create four apartment blocks and a collection of cottages for later living. In all, the proposed development will provide around 120 homes within a sustainably landscaped setting to create an integrated retirement community.<\/p>\n

The project is set to be the first net zero extra care development in Bristol and the first of many that FORE and Amicala plan to deliver as part of a \u00a3300 million investment in the sector. The project team is currently consulting with the local community and stakeholders on the plans before submitting a planning application in early 2022.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>What are the challenges of the existing site?
\n<\/strong>There are a number of complex constraints as well as some fantastic opportunities. Grace House is eccentric in character and form with a Brutalist appearance, juxtaposed against a series of grand Victorian lodges. The setting of Grace House as the focal listed building has been eroded over the years with substandard later additions currently hiding the building from public view.\u00a0 The site has limited street frontage along Westbury Park and very constrained access between the Victorian lodges. There are three character areas abutting the site with a wide variety of scale and forms of housing.\u00a0 The site also has extensive mature tree coverage of varying quality and a legal easement to an existing sewer.<\/p>\n

Key to the masterplan is creating the balance between accessibility and permeability for the community whilst ensuring privacy for the residents.\u00a0 The design approach therefore seeks to open up the view of Grace House, revealing it to the wider public to make it the heart of the new community.<\/p>\n

The new villas are designed to respond but not compete with Grace House<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The landscape setting around Grace House is softened with luscious planting, which encompasses an existing mature sweet gum tree as part of the setting.\u00a0 The new apartment villas and cottages are designed to respond to the varied context in a contemporary manner, in terms of materiality, detailing and massing, and to complement but not compete with Grace House.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Aerial shot of the St Christopher site as it is today<\/p>\n\t

<\/p><\/p><\/div>\n

Had demolition or partial demolition ever been considered?
\n<\/strong>FORE Partnership is a RetroFirst developer, committed to delivering net zero carbon across its portfolio from 2025. So the brief very much focused on the refurbishment of the existing assets. As with all sustainable retrofit, the creative challenge is transforming older buildings so they are fit for contemporary uses, meeting the highest standards of sustainability and design quality.<\/p>\n

Grace House as a listed building is at the heart of the redevelopment and will be sensitively retained to respect the key heritage asset which will positively contribute to the communal heart of the development.\u00a0 The existing lodges will be converted into high-quality apartments, suitable for ageing in place, with each building upgraded to achieve BREEAM Outstanding.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The proposed spa\/pool inside the converted Grace House building<\/p>\n\t

<\/p><\/p><\/div>\n

Grace House will have more sensitive interventions, due to its listing, with rooms repurposed for community use in a way that respects and celebrates the original use of the spaces.<\/p>\n

An early analysis of the existing garden structures and historic boundaries created an appreciation of their aged charm as part of the site\u2019s history and enabled us to consider their retention to enhance the landscape setting.<\/p>\n

Later additions will be dismantled and the building materials reused, repurposed or recycled<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are some less significant buildings on the site, which will need to be removed as their repurposing from educational use to housing would require extensive interventions and would still result in severely compromised living spaces, which wouldn\u2019t meet modern environmental expectations. These are in the main later additions which detract from the listed building. They will be dismantled rather than demolished and the building materials reused, repurposed or recycled as much as possible.<\/p>\n

Aside from retaining the original fabric, what other aspects of your design reduce the whole-life carbon impact of the building? Have you looked at any precedents from other 1960s buildings?
\n<\/strong>Careful selection of materials as we move forward will be imperative to the whole-life impact of the development. This is not just about where we source the materials but about looking at their true embodied carbon, including future maintenance and life cycle replacement.<\/p>\n

We have also looked at the original 1960s design drawings of Grace House, which do differ slightly from what was actually constructed. This has allowed us to consider interventions that align with the original design and benefit the new proposed use. As an example, the potential to allow the high-level rooflight windows to open automatically will improve cross ventilation in the warm summer months.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Grace House, original plan<\/p>\n\t

<\/p><\/p><\/div>\n

Are the planners supportive of the proposals?
\n<\/strong>There is a severe shortage of specialist accommodation for seniors in Bristol and the planners are supportive of the redevelopment of this key site and the intended use. Initial pre-application discussions have been positive although it is appreciated that there are still a range of complex design issues to be resolved.<\/p>\n

To date we\u2019ve received a range of feedback from the local community and other key stakeholders, including the design review panel. Neighbours to the site voiced some concerns on the early stage masterplan about scale and massing of the buildings and the proximity to the site boundaries. In response, we reduced the number of new apartment blocks proposed and increased the number of cottages, with other changes focused on repositioning buildings further away from the site boundaries so any impact on neighbours is reduced.<\/p>\n

Other feedback has welcomed the commitment to sustainability and the repurposing of the existing buildings and, in particular, that the development will be open to the community, not gated, allowing people to access a range of facilities and the generous landscaped gardens.<\/p>\n

Consultation with the local community and stakeholders is still ongoing and helping to shape the design proposals.<\/p>\n

What have been the main lessons from the project that you could apply on other developments?
\n<\/strong>To carefully consider the reuse of all buildings and garden structures at the outset and really drill into the repurposing of these, not only from a sustainability perspective but also from a functional perspective. The 3D scan to BIM surveys of the existing historic buildings have been invaluable as a design tool and are essential to assist designers with retrofitting and understanding the sensitive relationships between new and existing buildings.<\/p>\n

Is your approach to retrofit, and the way you talk about it with clients, changing \u2013 especially given the increased focus on the climate emergency?
\n<\/strong>Definitely.\u00a0 The first question architects should now be asking is \u2018how do we\u2019 \u2013 not \u2018can we\u2019 \u2013 retain and repurpose our existing buildings? It is our responsibility to challenge our clients when demolition is being considered. The climate emergency we now face is very real and retention of existing buildings must form part of the solution.<\/p>\n

Architects should now be asking is \u2018how do we\u2019 \u2013 not \u2018can we\u2019 \u2013 retain our existing buildings<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The quirkiness of buildings that have been repurposed for a different use can often provide a fantastic historic narrative, which future users will enjoy and appreciate.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With up to 40 per cent of carbon emissions coming from the construction industry, the profession needs to find ways of adapting the type of buildings it designs, and fast. The default option for any project should be to look at adapting and reusing existing buildings, one of the key demands of the AJ\u2019s RetroFirst …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":915,"featured_media":646545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"ep_exclude_from_search":false},"categories":[681],"tags":[5784,2145,5950,6196,1342],"yoast_head":"\nRetroFirst Stories: PRP later-living plans for listed 1960s Steiner school building<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The latest in an AJ series looking at architects who have saved buildings from the bulldozers or given them a new lease of life\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/retrofirst-stories-prps-later-living-plans-for-listed-1960s-steiner-school-building\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"RetroFirst Stories: PRP later-living plans for listed 1960s Steiner school building\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The latest in an AJ series looking at architects who have saved buildings from the bulldozers or given them a new lease of life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/retrofirst-stories-prps-later-living-plans-for-listed-1960s-steiner-school-building\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Architects\u2019 Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-06T08:49:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-12-06T09:27:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/12\/06085730\/Grace-House-index.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"414\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Richard Waite\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/waitey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Richard Waite\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/retrofirst-stories-prps-later-living-plans-for-listed-1960s-steiner-school-building\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/retrofirst-stories-prps-later-living-plans-for-listed-1960s-steiner-school-building\",\"name\":\"RetroFirst Stories: PRP later-living plans for listed 1960s Steiner school building\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-06T08:49:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-06T09:27:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/c098c74851864737ad4fa4e50861cf8c\"},\"description\":\"The latest in an AJ series looking at architects who have saved buildings from the bulldozers or given them a new lease of life\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/retrofirst-stories-prps-later-living-plans-for-listed-1960s-steiner-school-building#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/retrofirst-stories-prps-later-living-plans-for-listed-1960s-steiner-school-building\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/retrofirst-stories-prps-later-living-plans-for-listed-1960s-steiner-school-building#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"RetroFirst Stories: PRP later-living plans for listed 1960s Steiner school building\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"The Architects\u2019 Journal\",\"description\":\"Architecture News & Buildings\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/c098c74851864737ad4fa4e50861cf8c\",\"name\":\"Richard Waite\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/6cbf1402fe078387b47481c6908418f8\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/878d48df5d368e765aebd777e26b5be3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/878d48df5d368e765aebd777e26b5be3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Richard Waite\"},\"description\":\"Richard Waite is news editor of the Architects' Journal\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/waitey\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/author\/richard-waite\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"RetroFirst Stories: PRP later-living plans for listed 1960s Steiner school building","description":"The latest in an AJ series looking at architects who have saved buildings from the bulldozers or given them a new lease of life","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/retrofirst-stories-prps-later-living-plans-for-listed-1960s-steiner-school-building","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"RetroFirst Stories: PRP later-living plans for listed 1960s Steiner school building","og_description":"The latest in an AJ series looking at architects who have saved buildings from the bulldozers or given them a new lease of life","og_url":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/retrofirst-stories-prps-later-living-plans-for-listed-1960s-steiner-school-building","og_site_name":"The Architects\u2019 Journal","article_published_time":"2021-12-06T08:49:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-12-06T09:27:33+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.rt.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/12\/06085730\/Grace-House-index.jpg","width":620,"height":414,"type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Richard Waite","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/waitey","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Richard Waite","Estimated reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/retrofirst-stories-prps-later-living-plans-for-listed-1960s-steiner-school-building","url":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/retrofirst-stories-prps-later-living-plans-for-listed-1960s-steiner-school-building","name":"RetroFirst Stories: PRP later-living plans for listed 1960s Steiner school building","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-12-06T08:49:11+00:00","dateModified":"2021-12-06T09:27:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/c098c74851864737ad4fa4e50861cf8c"},"description":"The latest in an AJ series looking at architects who have saved buildings from the bulldozers or given them a new lease of life","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/retrofirst-stories-prps-later-living-plans-for-listed-1960s-steiner-school-building#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/retrofirst-stories-prps-later-living-plans-for-listed-1960s-steiner-school-building"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/news\/retrofirst-stories-prps-later-living-plans-for-listed-1960s-steiner-school-building#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"RetroFirst Stories: PRP later-living plans for listed 1960s Steiner school building"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/","name":"The Architects\u2019 Journal","description":"Architecture News & Buildings","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/c098c74851864737ad4fa4e50861cf8c","name":"Richard Waite","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/6cbf1402fe078387b47481c6908418f8","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/878d48df5d368e765aebd777e26b5be3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/878d48df5d368e765aebd777e26b5be3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Richard Waite"},"description":"Richard Waite is news editor of the Architects' Journal","sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/waitey"],"url":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/author\/richard-waite"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646490"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/915"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646490"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":646563,"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646490\/revisions\/646563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}