The Arcade

The brief

A masterplan and lead architect appointment for a new mixed-use quarter in Bristol's Temple Quarter, centred on a covered pedestrian arcade. The brief comes from a consortium of developers seeking to establish a new creative neighbourhood that builds on Bristol's reputation as a city of independent culture and craft.

The masterplan organises 8,600 m² of new development around a central covered arcade — a typology with deep roots in British civic culture, here reinterpreted for the twenty-first century. The arcade is a semi-public space running the length of the site, lined with workshops, studios, food and drink units, and market stalls. It acts as a connector between Temple Meads station to the east and the Floating Harbour to the west.

Individual buildings within the masterplan are designed as robust, adaptable shells — long-span concrete or steel frames with flexible façades. A design code ensures coherence without uniformity, allowing different architects and tenants to occupy buildings while maintaining the quality of the street.