Young Bristol wants to make it easier to get equipment into and out of the water
Colourful floating boathouses could be coming to Bristol’s Floating Harbour(Image: Ph3 Design)
Young Bristol has submitted bold new plans for colourful boathouses to be built on a pontoon on the Floating Harbour.
The youth charity, which turns 100 in 2028, wants to build the dome-shaped structures to allow easier access to the water for young people taking part in activities.
If the plans are approved, the boathouses will be built next to the Grain Barge, and a garage on Hotwell Road will be extended and converted into a new cafe and community space. New changing facilities would also be created inside the brick building which currently houses Young Bristol’s Pooles Wharf Outdoor Activity Centre.
The charity’s head of commercial activities Matt Donnelly said the design was meant to inspire children and young adults.
“We’re a youth charity, and ultimately it’s about doing things for young people,” he said.
“Why not make young people (want to be) bold and ambitious? And so that was the prescription we gave our architect team, that we want this project to be bold and ambitious.”
If the planning application is granted approval, the boathouses would be built directly in front of the famous colourful homes of Cliftonwood. Mr Donnelly said the proposed design had taken that iconic location into account.
“If you stand back from the water and look at the image (of the proposed boathouses), it fits with the houses that are above, it’s kind of like a modern version of something on the water that fits in with the landscape that’s around it,” he said.
The colourful boathouses have been designed to match the houses which tower over the Floating Harbour(Image: Ph3 Design)
The Pooles Wharf Outdoor Activity Centre is the base for activities including kayaking, raft building, canoeing and paddle boarding. Mr Donnelly said creating the new boathouses would allow Bristol to launch vessels directly into the water, saving staff and young people from criss-crossing the Harbourside path just to get items from the existing storehouses.
“Ultimately, it’s about mitigating risk,” he said. “We operate in a little pocket of the harbour which is a really unique kind of mixture of car park and public realm, and so we kind of have to navigate the conglomerate of moving vehicles, people, runners, e-scooters, cyclists, all that kind of stuff just to get out equipment out.
“Our biggest risk is not even going out on the water going all the fun stuff, it’s that. So by moving our equipment on to the water, it makes the water more accessible to more people.”
“The key things are reducing risk and enabling more people to access the water.”
Young Bristol’s plans have been submitted to Bristol City Council for approval. While there is no set timeline in place for the decision to be reviewed, Mr Donnelly said he was hopeful the boathouses could be installed within a year if plans got the go-ahead.
Young Bristol is looking for a convenient place to store equipment(Image: Ph3 Design)
Sean Redmond, director at Ph3 Design, the architects who created the proposed designs, said existing public access to the water at the site of the development would not be impeded if the boathouses were approved.
“The construction of the new boathouse, changing facilities and community space at Pooles Wharf are an opportunity to expand the capacity of youth charity Young Bristol’s fantastic outdoor activity programmes, where they engage with thousands of Bristol’s young people every year,” he said.
“The design has evolved out of a brief to create a bold, ambitious, vibrant space that reflects the ambitions and aspirations that Young Bristol seek to instil in the young people that they work with, and to create a place that feels deliberately and proudly like a place for young people, amongst the rest of the Harbourside estate, which currently has very few facilities dedicated to children and young people. The design is unapologetically bold and striking, but deliberately references the tiers of wonderful coloured houses and apartments on the hillside rising up behind it on Hotwell Road, and we hope that the floating boathouse will be a vibrant, contemporary addition to this iconic view of Bristol.
“The design protects the existing public pontoon space down on the water, along with the ferry landing space but will occupy a long un-used section of the harbour wall to create something that we hope Bristolians will take to their hearts as a symbol of the continuing regeneration of the city’s historic heart. We’re very aware that the proposals are very ambitious and striking in their architectural form, but we’re really keen to create something forward looking and optimistic that we hope will inspire the beautiful young people of this wonderful city.”