Bordeaux Quay is a restaurant, brasserie, bakery, community cookery school and converted dockside building in Bristol. The brief for the scheme was to explore the use of natural materials, daylighting and natural ventilation to reduce, where possible, the energy consumption of the building.

Together with White Design Associates, we exposed the original concrete structure to exploit the thermal mass of the existing building to eliminate the need for mechanical ventilation and comfort cooling to the restaurant. The exposed structure means that the building services are on view, and so careful detailing of ventilation ductwork and electrical containment was required. The scheme also includes a rainwater harvesting system, and solar thermal hot water generation.