Bath-based landscape architecture firm Grant Associates is to lead the design work for a new public open space that will be the centrepiece of the groundbreaking Brabazon development in North Bristol.
The largest new urban public park to be created in the South West for 50 years, the six-hectare Brabazon Park, pictured, will be a key part of the 380-acre scheme on the former Filton Airfield.
It will sit between the new neighbourhood, which when completed will have more than 2,600 homes, 52,000 sq ft of retail space and 62 acres of creative workspaces, and the 17,000 capacity YTL Arena.
Grant Associates, which works on major projects across the globe, has been closely involved in the vision for Brabazon – one of the largest brownfield sites in the UK – since 2015, working with YTL Developments to create the overall landscape strategy and masterplan for the new neighbourhood.
YTL Developments, part of part of the Malaysian conglomerate YTL, which also owns, Bath-based Wessex Water, has now appointed Grant Associates to work on the signature area of public open space for Brabazon, creating an attraction for residents and visitors.
The brief is to create a contemporary open area that will become the social heart of the sustainable neighbourhood while also celebrating the heritage of the former airfield and creating space for art, nature, the community and cultural events.
Water will be an important focus, bringing the park to life for people and wildlife and linking to a wider sustainability strategy for Brabazon with an integrated approach to sustainable urban drainage as well as offering amenity and biodiversity value.
Grant Associates director Keith French, pictured, said: “Parks have always served an important public health function and valuable biodiversity connector in cities – giving us space to exercise and play, spaces for wildlife and a place to reconnect with nature and nurture our physical and mental health.
“These functions are all the more critical now. We are really excited about the possibilities for Brabazon Park – it is not only a significant new and inclusive green space for the Brabazon community but also, through the use of water, will help breathe new life into this new city neighbourhood, the people who enjoy it and wildlife, and will create a vibrant landscape destination associated with the YTL Arena.”
YTL Developments planning and development director Seb Loyn added: “Grant Associates have been a key partner to date in developing the vision for Brabazon as a thriving new neighbourhood for Bristol – and with the new YTL Arena Complex now fully approved, our delivery plans are stepping up a gear.”
Grant Associates, which also has an office in Singapore, is best known for producing major eye-catching architectural schemes across the globe for the past 21 years.
It has recently worked on the Friendship Park project in China’s innovative Tianjin Eco-City and a former industrial wasteland on Sydney’s waterfront.
In its home city of Bath it has supported the Forest of Imagination community arts event and promoted the delicate ecology of Wessex Water’s operations centre on the city’s outskirts. In Bristol it helped regenerate the city’s historic Harbourside as part of a £120m scheme for developer Crest Nicholson.
