The practice were asked to lead a team, alongside Feilden Clegg Bradley Architects, to develop proposals as part of an English Partnerships, developer led, competition. The project addressed two large sites in the centre of historic Gloucester. The main site is currently occupied by a 1930's college building, which sits on the line of the Roman wall, and is edged by the historic route of the Via Sacre and the ruins of Greyfriars Priory.

The proposals, for 320 residential units, develops from issues of townscape, defined through a variety of scales of built form and a series of urban spaces. These are characterised as streets, public squares, private courtyards and gardens responding to the requirements of city life and the particularities of a historic collegiate context.

A decision was made to repair, utilise and extend the existing college building while also defining a series of new building typologies to offer a diverse range of accommodation and building form, allowing a desirable mix of tenures to co-exist on the site.

Our proposal establishes two gateway buildings to the Greyfriars site which stand in the space in front of the college building and whose form relates to the tower like entrance and ends. These are defined as simple masonry forms, above a more open, commercial ground floor.

A series of Courtyard Houses define a strong rhythmical character against the street, as they oscillate between two and three stories. Their rhythm and continuity establish a density, which clearly defines their role in marking the historic Roman boundary of the City.

Three storey, flat fronted Town Houses, which recall the Georgian precedent, extend the line of Priory Place. Their form and fenestration directly refers to the existing houses, whilst being clearly of their own time.

The larger configurations of apartments on the site achieve an urban density but have been eroded in terms of their form, in order that they become subservient to the spaces, the courtyards and public outdoor 'rooms' which they bound. They are intended to be 'quiet' buildings, their character and fragmented scale allow them to become a well mannered background to urban and domestic life.

The central building of the existing college has been stripped of additions in order to reveal the elemental nature of its interior and exterior form. The central hall is removed and replaced by a new block of accommodation. The existing cloister like form of large corridors, which circumnavigate courtyards, access new apartments and the exterior.

The section is carefully considered to allow for the continued utilisation of a grand staircase in the current main entrance. On the roof of the existing building, a series of new apartments occupy a lightweight contemporary extension. Against the courtyards, this becomes, a cloistered columnar space which accesses the apartments above the existing corridors. On three sides these rooftop apartments take the form of Duplex's with double height spaces against the exterior elevation. This maximises the opportunities of light and view and relates the proportions of the new to that of the existing.