Bristol Harbourside Apartments

After a competitive tender process, we were awarded the exciting opportunity to build an exclusive residential property on Bristol’s Harbourside.
This residential development comprises 13 high-spec serviced apartments set over six floors, with basement car park. The site presented significant engineering and logistical challenges due to its constrained footprint, varying ground levels, and proximity to surrounding structures and bodies of water. Despite these complexities, the project team delivered an architecturally striking and well-engineered building that complements the area’s historic yet modern waterfront setting.

The below-ground car park forms the foundation of the project. Given the tight urban context and limited access, a contiguous piled wall was used along Cumberland Road. This method allowed for effective ground retention while minimising movement to adjacent properties. The piles returned along the perimeter toward The Quays, while the flanks along The Quays and Museum Street were constructed using cast in-situ concrete walls. This provided a robust and watertight substructure capable of resisting hydrostatic pressures and settlement risks.

To cap this foundation system, a two-way spanning cast in-situ concrete ground deck was poured. This deck not only supports the superstructure but also serves as a transfer slab, accommodating the change in levels and load paths required due to the site’s topography.

The building super structure from ground floor up was designed using a steel frame system, chosen for its speed of erection, precision, and adaptability in a confined urban site. Cold rolled steel joists were integrated into the roof to continue the lightweight yet strong structural approach.

A mastic-type infill system was employed between the steel frame, providing both structural stability and fire compartmentation while allowing for flexibility in façade finishes. This method was particularly beneficial in such a tight site, where dry construction methods minimised material handling challenges and site congestion.

The building’s façade reflects the style of the Harbourside buildings, and the facades are predominantly composed of facing bricks, render, and metal cladding, broken up with striking glazing.  This variety in material and texture allows the building to blend into its historic industrial setting while offering modern visual appeal.

The site constraints represented the most complex set of challenges the project would face. The site was an approximately wedge-shaped infill plot, sandwiched tightly between two previous developments. The result of this was a lack of space to manoeuvre at the access and egress points and to store the materials needed for the work. Additionally, the diverse levels between Cumberland Road and the quay edge required a detailed temporary works strategy to ensure stability and safety during the excavation of the basement.

Incorporated within the temporary works design was the provision for a tower crane which was vital in supporting the just in time delivery schedule needed to resource this job. The delivery vehicles could arrive and wait within the in and out gates on Cumberland Road allowing the crane to unload directly off the back of the wagon and then load out onto the site or the building in one operation.

Our ability to complete this project demonstrates our skill to deliver a complex inner city infill development that required a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach.

Through thoughtful engineering, careful planning, and innovative use of materials, the team transformed a constrained site into a high-quality residential development that enhances the character of Bristol’s Harbourside.