Case study Kingston Mills

Four different Formpave products have been used to complement the historic Kingston Mills site in the heart of Bradford on Avon and help to replace the dominance of the traditional highway design.

Kingston Mills is a mixed use, waterside development on the site of a former rubber works in the heart of Bradford on Avon. The scheme includes more than 170 new homes as well as office space, retail units, cafes, a community building and riverside path, interspersed with a series of courtyards.

Formpave’s Chartres classic and boulevard block paving, as well as the company’s EcoGranite kerbs and setts, have been installed in the highway, car parking and pedestrian zones of the development to complement the buildings and surrounding area.

Kingston Mills lies within the historic town of Bradford on Avon, eight miles from the World Heritage City of Bath. This meant that appointed landscape designers, Nicholas Pearson Associates, needed a high quality paving product that ticked a number of boxes.

Simon Kale, managing director at Nicholas Pearson Associates, said: “The paving material needed to be sensitive to the context of the site, while providing an attractive streetscape. We also wanted a product that could be used for both roads and pavements so we could move away from a traditional highway design.

“Formpave’s Chartre range was an obvious choice as the colour and finish lends itself to use in conservational areas and where architectural heritage is a key factor. It also offers a good range of sizes, which was helpful in creating the overall design.

“We worked closely with Formpave’s technical design team to ensure that the correct products were used and the result demonstrates how careful design and appropriate material selection can add value to a development.”

The dominant building materials in the area are Bath stone and Purbeck natural stone so Formpave’s Chartres paving was supplied in Purbeck finish to fit perfectly with the surrounding architecture.

The paving used in the pedestrian zones, including the communal spaces and piazza-style areas around the commercial units, was supplied with a variable coursing width to create a more interesting design. Each layer contained 12 separate paving blocks of seven different sizes.

Formpave’s EcoGranite, used for the kerbs and setts, contains up to 77 per cent recycled content, making it one of the most sustainable paving options available.

Linden Homes’ Kingston Mills development has won three top awards: Best Regeneration in the 2012 Housebuilder awards; Best Mixed Use Development in the Sunday Times British Homes awards 2012; and Refurbishment of the Year at the Blue Ribbon awards, held at the 2013 Ideal Home Show.