UK studio Zaha Hadid Architects is developing its plans to transform a former diesel depot in southwest England and create a mix of housing and workspaces called Bristol Temple Island.
Bristol Temple Island is being designed for property investor Legal and General, which has submitted a planning application for the project as part of a wider regeneration masterplan in Bristol called Bristol Temple Quarter.
If approved, it will contain two office buildings, retail space, a hotel and 520 homes – 40 per cent of which will be designed for social and affordable rent.
Designed with landscape architecture studio LDA Design, Zaha Hadid Architects’ proposal prioritises space for pedestrian and cycle paths, while minimising infrastructure for cars.
Legal and General hopes the project will meet Bristol’s housing needs and provide employment opportunities to the local community.
The property investor’s planning application for Bristol Temple Island comes seven years after a Zaha Hadid Architects-designed proposal to redevelop the site was first unveiled in 2018.
At the time, the Bristol Arena designed by architecture studio Populous had also been earmarked for construction on the site.
The arena was later confirmed to be designed by Grimshaw Architects and Manica Architecture and set to be built at Bristol’s former Filton Airfield. Legal and General secured the site for the Bristol Temple Island project in 2021.
Bristol Temple Island to provide “much-needed housing”
“Legal and General seeks to deliver precisely targeted investment through a place-based approach to creating transformative mixed-use communities,” said Legal and General head of regeneration Ben Rodgers.
“We are excited by the opportunity to regenerate Temple Island, revitalising the urban landscape and providing the key infrastructure that businesses, universities, and the public sector need to thrive alongside much-needed housing for the local population in Bristol.”
Other projects recently unveiled by Zaha Hadid Architects include a Serbian paper mill set to be transformed into the Nikola Tesla Museum and an arts centre in China topped with a sweeping roof.
Earlier this month, Dezeen named the studio’s Bergisel Ski Jump in Austria as the most significant building to be completed in 2002, as part of our 21st-Century Architecture: 25 Years 25 Buildings series.
