Two large sites, in the centre of historic Gloucester, were the subject of an invited, developer led competition by English Partnerships undertaken in collaboration with FCB Studios. The main site was occupied by a 1930’s college building, which sat on the line of the Roman wall, and was edged by the historic route of the Via Sacre and the ruins of Greyfriars Priory.

Countering the premise of the brief the proposal, for 320 residential units, began with an appreciation of the existing qualities and built fabric on the site and developed through the re-integration of this into the wider townscape, through a variety of scales of built form and urban space.

These were characterised as streets, public squares, private courtyards and gardens, each negotiating in a different way between the complex requirements of contemporary city life and the particularities of a historic collegiate context. Our proposition was to repair and extend the existing college building which dominated the larger site, whilst also defining a series of new building typologies, which would offer a diverse range of accommodation and building form, allowing a desirable mix of tenures to co-exist. The proposal was shortlisted to the final two.