Axel Burrough is the designer and architect behind Colston Hall’s new golden foyer. I was lucky enough to put a few questions to him regarding the thought process behind the striking design:

What does it mean to have designed the new Colston Hall when you are from Bristol yourself?
It certainly increased the interest for me and I hope my prior knowledge of Bristol helped. I visited the Colston Hall and The Little Theatre as a child with my parents and my school and subsequently with friends as a teenager and young adult. I saw Otis Redding there on the famous Stax/Volt tour just before his death and will never forget it.

Do you think your own background with the city influenced your design ideas?
I did my dissertation at university on post-war planning in Bristol, which I seem to remember being pretty critical about. One of the interesting things about the development of Bristol was the decision to move the commercial centre to Broadmead, when before the War it led in a continuous linear pattern from the Centre, via Corn Street and Castle Street to Old Market. The vitality of this route was legendary, a bit like a Spanish ‘paseo’, so packed out with pedestrians that vehicles were almost automatically excluded. Building a new shopping centre in Broadmead and the construction of the inner ring road has destroyed hundreds of years of generic development, completely changing the City Centre and cutting off Old Market. The Castle Hill area remained a bomb site throughout my youth and Old Market became a very peripheral location. Although it is all improved now, it took a very long time and one of the casualties was the Colston Hall which, when built, was a stone’s throw from the docks and all the bustle and activity of a major trading port. Therefore an important ingredient of this project is to put Colston Hall back on the map, as it were. Its design, based around an internal street, provides an opportunity to link the Park Row/Perry Road area with the Centre and we hope that any future regeneration of the Trenchard Street area will build on this start.

Was the impacting and unusual design part of your brief or your own choice?
Our client did share our desire that the new building should not be a shrinking violet. The failed Performing Arts Centre project for the Canon’s Marsh area had a very prominent site overlooking Narrow Quay and many people felt that one of Colston Hall’s major problems was its slightly peripheral location. We felt the building therefore needed to be striking from a distance and that influenced the bold form and the choice of the golden cladding.

How did the design process develop? What were the initial ideas? How could it have been?
The idea of the central ‘street’ linking Colston Street with Trenchard Street was one of the earliest ideas which stayed throughout. What may not be apparent from the completed building is the masterplanning work we did for the improvement of the entire Colston Hall. Future phases will refurbish and improve both halls and the areas beneath them. The first phase is designed to enable this to happen; for example the level of the major interval bar has been chosen to eventually link with the level of Hall 2, the stage of the main hall, and the centrepoint of a new seating arrangement for the stalls of the main hall. Eventually all public spaces will link far better than they do now.

How do you feel about the rest of Bristol’s architecture?
Bristol does have a lot of wonderful buildings. Obviously buildings like St Mary Redcliffe and the Cathedral spring to mind; however, one of the exceptional aspects of Bristol’s architecture is the good representation of all eras of architecture. Contrast the variety of epochs represented in the city churches of Bristol with those of Norwich (all perpendicular style) and London (all post-fire of London) and you will see what I mean. Bristol has great Victorian and Georgian architecture and some great industrial architecture to add to its housing, banks and churches. Part of the quality of Bristol’s architectural heritage lies in its variety. Possibly the latter half of the 20th century is badly represented for its quality and we hope the Colston Hall foyer is a positive contribution. Certainly it is a contribution to the never-ending variety of Bristol’s buildings!

Do you think the new Colston fits in with the rest of the city?
Yes I do. I would describe it as a contextual response. Its curved form acknowledges the medieval road pattern of Pipe Lane and Trenchard Street and the two entrances at different levels work with the hillside upon which it sits. The irregular fenestration pattern responds to the informality of the attractive jumble of buildings along Pipe Lane, as does the jettying-out of the upper floors. Its height is carefully considered to link with the existing building and not to dominate Pipe Lane. It is designed to look like a new independent building, rather than an extension, so as to allow the existing beautiful Victorian facade to breathe. We have also designed a building which looks good from the top, which is an important consideration in such a hilly town.

What specific parts of the refurbishment are eco-friendly?
Central to the strategy is passive energy conservation – an exposed concrete structure of high thermal mass, high levels of insulation and passive solar design to minimise overheating. The passive measures are supplemented by a wind turbine and a solar hot water system. The building is naturally ventilated, apart from peak times in the interval bars and maximises the use of daylight in combination with sophisticated control of artificial lighting. The selection of building materials has also been driven by environmental considerations. As examples, 95% of the demolition material was recycled within the site and the copper cladding, which is 80% recoverable, is made up of at least 70% recycled material.

How do you think people are reacting?
When in the building we have noticed people enjoying it and initial reaction from those managing it is that it works well. It always takes a little time for people to work out how to use a building best, but we have been very pleased by its ability to accommodate live musical events. We worked hard with our acousticians to ensure that the large volume is not too reverberant – imagine how uncomfortable it would feel if it had the acoustics of a cathedral!

How do you think it will age?
We hope it will age well. Most of the internal surfaces that people come into contact with are easy to maintain.

What are you working on now?
We have an interesting project in Southport to link and improve performing arts, museum, art gallery and library uses in three adjacent listed buildings.

www.colstonhall.org

Helen Martin
Photos by Ian Bradley - www.ianbradelyphotography.com

To read the full article on Colston Hall including public responses to the building, click here: Colston Hall – Going For Gold