The closure of the Bristol’s aero industries commercial airport in Filton, to the north of the city brought some 500 hectares of land forward for development, leading to designation in the Local Plan. Around a third of this was acquired by international commodities company, YTL, based in Malaysia. YTL have a long history of building and managing housing on a large scale around aspirational goals. But what should they be building at Filton? And who would they be building it for?
Our research geographers were commissioned to build this data, important to the project’s strategic masterplan. Using a range of standard socio-economic data sets we showed how this long running development could respond to a wide range of emerging socio-economic mega trends; in changing demographics, living and working lifestyles, journey to work patterns and gaps in north Bristol’s current housing stock availability. We interviewed several of the region’s major employers to understand workplace trends. We assessed ‘choice to live’ parameters through all the critical northern neighbourhoods and identified 10 lifestyle typologies the development could offer to be seen as a popular new district to live and work in over its 30-year build period.