Henleaze Swimming Lake, Bristol (United Kingdom) 2014
University of the West of England
The Executive Committee of Henleaze Swimming Club wanted to explore development options at Henleaze Lake, a beautiful and tranquil members-only location in the North West of Bristol. The project immediately presented some unique issues, the most contentious and predominating of which was that the majority of members were against any sort of development, afraid that any scale of change or adaptation would spoil the Lake’s atmosphere.
Our approach to the project was one of careful suggestion. We focused on the poetic narrative of outdoor swimming, demonstrating our understanding of the cherished site atmosphere; using this in both the way we talked about the project and in the way we presented all illustrations, diagrams and drawings. In this way, we suggested a three stage development approach that explored subtle alterations to existing structures, new builds, and social interventions. This was designed to be sequentially phased, but could also work on a pick-and-choose basis.
Client: Henleaze Swimming Club
Students: Sophie Jarzebowski, Matthew Spencer Small, Damon Hilliard, Andy Mitchel, Ester Corti, Lindsay Iles.
Links: Hands on Bristol
United Kingdom, 0-10, Architecture, Days, Initiated by institution, Self-funded, Postgraduate, Propositional, Curricular, Students with tutor, West of England Univ.
