Bradford City Masterplan Design Report and Guidelines
Bradford City Masterplan
Design Report and Guidelines
By Mathew Giles, Noel Hughes, Simon Knight and John Milligan
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Section Five Masterplan Layering Diagrams
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Section Two Precedents Study
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Section Six Masterplan Guidelines
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Bibliography
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Section Three Urban Block Typology Study
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Section Four Sketch development
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Bradford City Masterplan
Contents
Section One Site Analysis
Bradford City Masterplan
Site Analysis
Section One In this first section we identify what activities (if any) are currently occuring on our site and in the immediate area. We also established what existing urban fabric we wanted to retain in our masterplan.
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View of coal drops and beck
Bradford is historically an industrial city located on the edge of the moors of Britain’s West Yorkshire Pennines.
Today, most of the older textile mills and some of the heavier industries have closed and many areas have been overlooked by developers.
During the industrial revolution in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century, Bradford grew and gained importance as a major producer of textiles and became known as the woollen centre of the world. To support the textiles mills and machinery a large manufacturing base grew in the city, leading to diversification with different industries thriving side by side.
The Odeon cinema
Aerial view of City Hall, 1920
Bradford City Masterplan
An Introduction to Bradford
View of City Hall from Thornton Road, 1954
Bradford boasts some fine Victorian industrial buildings but has lacked the investment to turn this city into a focal point of the north west once again.
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Proposed site boundary buildings
Civic buildings
Bradford City Masterplan
Bus routes
City Centre Zoning
Retail area
Education
Transport Interchange
Residential
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Bradford City Masterplan
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Photographs of Buildings Retained
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The photographs show the buildings to be retained on the site. These were chosen due to their architectural quality, condition and use. The diagram on the following page illustrates the location of the retained buildings and highlights those demolished.
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Bradford City Masterplan
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Demolition Plan and Retained Buildings Locations
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Bradford City Masterplan
Precedents Study
Section Two We decided to look at a variety of masterplan precedents and possibilities. Specifically, we looked at bold urban interventions, ranging from very conceptual ideas to more realistic designs.
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Superstudio - 32nd St. 12th Ave.
Zaha Hadid - Soho City, Beijing
Zaha Hadid - One North Complex, Singapore
This image shows the idea of a bold superstructure encompassing downtown Manhattan and eventually enveloping its surroundings. The superstructure would be inhabited as a new city, while the original settlement would be looked upon as a monument to the past.
The superstructure here, replaces the existing fabric with a new identical volume. New urban blocks are created, providing a distinct contrast between old and new.
The approach taken here was to create a collection of buildings, similar in form to, provide a coherent masterplan. It does not incorporate an urban block type but uses individual buildings instead.
Here, the masterplan reads as a sinuous, organic, alien mass, which has landed in the city. This form is then broken up by streets into blocks, while still retaining the feeling of one whole form.
Bradford City Masterplan
Precedents Study
Superstudio - Continuous Monument
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Ten Arquitectos - Queens Water Front, New York.
Hugh Ferris - City Drawings.
Hugh Ferris - Still from Just Imagine USA, Fox, 1930.
Rather than a huge superstructure, a grid is formed, creating urban blocks which surround a central park. There is a combination of the block as monument and matrix.
The blocks take on a abstract, almost sculptural form in this masterplan. Each block is a building and forms a coherent aesthetic.
Utopia is depicted as a large sprawling city where the processes of living are separated out into different layers. Transport infrastructure occupies one layer, pedestrian traffic flows on another, while high rise buildings intersperse themselves between these highways.
Here we can see the ‘futuristic’ transport links slicing through the sky amongst the skyscrapers.
Bradford City Masterplan
Precedents Study
Ten Arquitectos - Song Do Dec, South Korea.
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Bradford City Masterplan
Urban Block Typology Study
Section Three The Urban Block Typology Study comprises of analysis of the block types and composition within six European cities. It focuses on how public and private spaces create a certain character and relate to the rest of the city. The sketches in the study represent our interpretation of the most significant patterns identified.
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The public space is formed by a formal grid. Essentially the public space has been defined by the removal of a block.
A sinuous urban grid form the urban blocks, possibly due to the topography of the city. Although organic, there is still a regularity to the grid. The blocks are very dense, with very few internal courtyards or openings.
Again there is a regular grid but in this instance it has been broken up by roads splicing through at irregular locations. There are more courtyard spaces, private and public.
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Bradford City Masterplan
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Urban Block Typology Study - Madrid
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The public space is secluded; surrounded by a tight cluster of private buildings. The square is sheltered from the main road. Small narrow streets snake around the blocks, creating a distinct character.
Chamfered block corners create urban nodes. Main roads slice through the grid system. It is a very formal and large scale urban grid.
Narrow lanes are possibly informed by the warmer climate that Barcelona endures. There are no courtyards within the buildings, neither are there any large formal public spaces. Gatherings are therefore not encouraged by the street layout.
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Bradford City Masterplan
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Urban Block Typology Study - Barcelona
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The use of public buildings opens up the space and increases the sense of grandeur. A wide main road also adds to this grandeur and expansiveness of the space.
An irregular building line exists within a regular grid. Within the urban grid, blocks are occasionally split up informally to create small outdoor spaces.
Here the public space is formed by a random arrangement of informal buildings.
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Bradford City Masterplan
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Urban Block Typology Study - Athens
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The use of public buildings opens up the space and increases the sense of grandeur. A wide main road also adds to this grandeur and expansiveness of the space.
A very formal block type is employed in this city grid. It provides a coherent building facade to the area while also providing private or sometimes communal spaces.
The block again is on a formal grid but the internal courtyards are broken down by the rear facade treatment of each individual dwelling or plot. Wider roads dissect the grid North to South, while narrower streets split the streets up East to West.
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Bradford City Masterplan
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Urban Block Typology Study - Amsterdam
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The public space is sheltered from the main road. A grand approach to the square is created through centrally intersecting roads.
A focal nodal point identifies the remnants of a medieval plan. Opportunities for landmark buildings are presented each corner. The ‘Diamond’ configuration allows for views and vistas to other parts of the city.
Terraces provide a coherent building facade to the area while also providing private or sometimes communal spaces.
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Bradford City Masterplan
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Urban Block Typology Study - London
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The use of public buildings opens up the space and increases the sense of grandeur. A wide main road also adds to this grandeur and expansiveness of the space.
A large block is employed in this city an is punctuated with regular courtyard spaces. This maximises the amount of light filtering into the buildings.
The ratio of public area to private buildings is very high in this block type. The row defines the street and the communal space.
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Bradford City Masterplan
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Urban Block Typology Study - Berlin
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Bradford City Masterplan
Sketch Development
Section Four This section shows how we developed our ideas. A certain stages we went off at tangents, including looking at superstructures, various formal grids and form driven designs. The design process, as is usually the case, was not linear but did result in a coherent process non the less.
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‘Wipeout’ variation on the grid influenced by contours of the site and surrounding context.
Continuation of pathways across site, informed from existing routes and surrounding context.
Citation of spaces ‘in-between’ existing layers. The superstructure provides new accommodation for mixed uses, in one whole mass.
The use of a rigorous grid with retained buildings and increased existing green spaces, starts to look at the creation of a masterplan through a pragmatic approach of layering.
Bradford City Masterplan
Sketch Development
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The use of a rigorous grid, which responds more to the immediate context, and incorporates existing buildings and increased existing green spaces. This starts to look at the creation of a masterplan through a pragmatic approach of layering.
Rigorous grid applied to relate to existing road and block layout. A linked green space runs through the extent of the site and relates to the existing beck.
Creation of vistas and pathways engages and draws people through and around the site.
Breakdown of block, segregation of ‘type’, initial tree strategy and public and green spaces form our masterplan.
Bradford City Masterplan
Sketch Development
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Bradford City Masterplan
Masterplan Layering Diagrams
Section Five Our masterplan design was created by the careful build up of existing fabric and the superimposition of our chosen block types on a grid defined by contextual buildings and contours. The reading of ‘Urban Forms - The Death and Life of the Urban Block’ and ‘The Dialectic City’ were key texts in the development of our scheme.
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The Site
The site is treated as an individual portion of the city. Currently it is a ‘Twighlight Zone’ of sorts, where there is no real character or activity occuring within this area. Due to this, we decided to focus our attention within the boundaries of the site while establishing links with the city centre.
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Bradford City Masterplan
Masterplan Layering Diagrams
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Roads
The first stage was the retention of existing roads. The decision was made that the busy thoroughfare in and out of the city was effective as a passage through the site and that the tributaries running off of it were also working.
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Retained Buildings
The retained buildings have been assessed on architectural quality, condition and present use. They have then been placed on the site, in their current locations.
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Bradford City Masterplan
Masterplan Layering Diagrams
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Street Layout
The street layouts were derived from the site’s topography, existing buildings and roads but also by the surrounding context. The aim was to create new routes through the site, which would in turn provide new and interesting vistas.
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Green Spaces
The green spaces were then created. These were dictated by the locations of the existing green spaces and combined with the grid to create the dotted areas illustrated above.
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Bradford City Masterplan
Masterplan Layering Diagrams
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Perimeter Block
After researching the ‘block’ type through our Typology Study and further reading, we came to the conclusion that the perimeter block would be the most suitable for this scheme, providing the character and spaces we wanted for the site.
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Bradford City Masterplan
Masterplan Layering Diagrams
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Block Types
The final stage was to superimpose the two different perimeter block types - the block as a building and the block as a collection of buildings.
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Bradford City Masterplan
Masterplan Guidelines
Section Six Any masterplan needs a set of guidelines to implement it. This section explores how the masterplan can be employed in the area and create the character and aesthetic that we envisaged.
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Paris, France
In order for the masterplan to work and to meet our aims and ambitions, we have laid out certain design guidelines. Hopefully by following these rules, the site of the masterplan will read as a coherent piece of urban design, providing a distinct character to the area and most importantly providing a pleasant living and working environment.
These are general design guidelines for the masterplan:
Genoa, Italy
Paris, France
Bradford City Masterplan
General Masterplan Guidelines
Milan, Italy
All pedestrian streets must be 5.5m wide, allowing for emergency vehicles and deliveries. All vehicular routes are to be 8.5m wide. This consists of a 5.5m wide road with 1.5m pavements either side. All external public stairs to have a tread of 500mm and a rise of 150mm.
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2. Typical Plan
3. Typical Section
Block Type A is the condition where the block forms an individual, independent building. Due to the masterplan using the perimeter block, the building will therefore have an internal courtyard space.
These are the design guidelines for block type A:
All blocks are to be three storeys i.e. 12m high, except from the North segment of the perimeter block which will be two storeys i.e. 8m high and the block segments that front Thornton Road which will be four storeys i.e. 16m high.
On all blocks, the buildings must be constructed up to the designated building line. All buildings are to have a floor to floor height of 4m, which consists of a floor to ceiling height of 3m and floor construction of 1m.
4. Photograph of typical block
Bradford City Masterplan
Block Type A Guidelines
1. Key Plan
All Internal courtyards are to be communal.
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2. Typical Plan
3. Typical Section
Block Type B is where the block is split up into individual plots. This provides a uniform facade to the block and therefore a coherence to the city as a whole. However internally, the block provides the potential for individual and private spaces or simply one communal space.
These are the design guidelines for block type B:
All blocks are to be three storeys i.e. 12m high, except from the North segment of the perimeter block which will be two storeys i.e. 8m high and the block segments that front Thornton Road which will be four storeys i.e. 16m high.
On all blocks, the buildings must be constructed up to the designated building line. All buildings are to have a floor to floor height of 4m, which consists of a floor to ceiling height of 3m and floor construction of 1m.
4. Photograph of typical block
Bradford City Masterplan
Block Type B Guidelines
1. Key Plan
The Minimum plot size is 10m x 10m. If the internal courtyard is more than 650 sq m, than it can be divided up into individual courtyards for each plot.
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2. Typical Plan
3. Typical Section
4. Photograph of typical block
Block Type C is where the block butts up against an existing building on the site. There should be a definite distinction between what is new and what is old, while responding sensitively to the existing condition. This is an exciting opportunity to present interesting and varied spaces and blocks within the masterplan.
These are the design guidelines for block type C:
All blocks are to be three storeys i.e. 12m high, except from the North segment of the perimeter block which will be two storeys i.e. 8m high and the block segments that front Thornton Road which will be four storeys i.e. 16m high.
If the new building extension is bigger in footprint than the old existing building, then it will be subdivided into plots as in block type B. However if the new building is smaller than the existing building, it will not be subdivided.
The new buildings must be constructed up to the designated building line. All buildings are to have a floor to floor height of 4m, which consists of a floor to ceiling height of 3m and floor construction of 1m.
Bradford City Masterplan
Block Type C Guidelines
1. Key Plan
If the internal courtyard is more than 650 sq m, than it can be divided up into individual courtyards for each plot.
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2. Typical Plan
3. Typical Section
Block Type D is an individual, independent, monument building. It serves one function and incorporates a public space around it.
These are the design guidelines for block type D:
All blocks are to be three storeys i.e. 12m high, except from the North segment of the perimeter block which will be two storeys i.e. 8m high and the block segments that front Thornton Road which will be four storeys i.e. 16m high.
The new buildings must be constructed up to the designated building line.
4. Photograph of typical block
Bradford City Masterplan
Block Type D Guidelines
1. Key Plan
All buildings are to have a floor to floor height of 4m, which consists of a floor to ceiling height of 3m and floor construction of 1m.
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Bradford City Masterplan Aerial Photograph
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O.M. Ungers. Dialectic City. Skira Editore, 1999.
Kostof, Spiro. The City Shaped. Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1999.
Architectural Theory. Bernd Evers. Taschen, 2006.
Bradford City Masterplan
Bibliography
Lynch, Kevin. Image of the City. The MIT Press, 1960.
Samuels, Ivor. Urban Forms. Architectural Press, 2004. Cullen, Gordon. Concise Townscape. Architectural Press, 1994. Rossi, Aldo. The Architecture of the City. The MIT Press, 1984.
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Bradford City Masterplan Design Report and Guidelines