Locksbrook Rd

Bath, Somerset

Mitchell Eley Gould were appointed to design a mixed use building to house an innovation centre/light industrial workspace, a new home for the Genesis Lifestyle Centre and 80 student bed accommodation. This site is identified by BANES as a strategically important employment site. Summix Capital see the site as an opportunity to build on this regeneration of the local area, by providing purpose-built accommodation on a site which cannot be used for housing, and to increase the availability of light industrial employment space in the city, in accordance with BANES Local Plan. Locksbrook Road is a mixed use development set within the heart of Bath’s remaining industrial district; that runs along the northern edge of the Avon as it runs west towards Bristol. As such the proposals have taken on this rather unique character for the predominantly formal landscape of Bath; as not only does this location define a character & use that is vastly different to the standard Georgian townhouses of the city centre. The building takes on an architecture that is both contemporary, yet distinctly industrial in nature, with a highly ordered large format metal panels making up the upper façade; made up of identifying structural forms; set upon a cast concrete plinth. This strong architectural aesthetic works to fit into the surrounding mix of large rhythmic concrete and metal buildings. The pressed metal panels of the proposed building and large open plan ground floor spaces all speak to this language of repetition, structural expression and rigor found within the local architecture. The design of the building was well-received at our public consultation and the high proportion of studio rooms make the scheme attractive to local post-graduate students.