Marshall Walk, Bristol
Twelve zero operational carbon homes on a site that had defeated conventional construction
Marshall Walk is a pioneering social housing development in the heart of Inns Court, Bristol, delivered by ZED PODS in partnership with Bristol City Council. Twelve high-quality, zero-operational-carbon homes for single-person households — half of them for people moving on from homelessness — now stand on a long-underutilised brownfield plot that had sat dormant for years. From contract signature to completed, occupied homes took eighteen months.
Project Information
Location: Marshall Walk, Inns Court, Bristol BS4 1TR
Scope of works: RIBA Stages 4–7, full turnkey MMC delivery under the SWPA framework (JCT Design & Build)
Type of construction: Offsite volumetric MMC (Category 1), ZED PODS BOPAS-accredited design and build system
Building Solution: Permanent
Status: In Use
Project Team
Principal Designer & Contractor
Client
Existing Site
A dormant brownfield plot at the centre of a community
The site is a brownfield plot at the junction of Inns Court Avenue and Marshall Walk, adjacent to the Inns Court Community and Family Centre. Surrounded by local facilities and well served by public transport, it is a highly sustainable location supported by national and local planning policy for residential-led development — and yet it had sat unused for years.
Project at a glance
Site area: 1,200 m²
Homes delivered: 12 × 1 bed / 1 person
Total GIFA: 567.6 m²
Volumetric modules installed: 12
Solar PV panels: 84 (36.96 kWp installed)
Annual carbon saving: 12.6 tCO₂/yr
Air source heat pumps: 12 (one per home)
EPC rating: A — all 12 homes
The brief
Affordable, warm homes that move Bristol's One City Plan forward
Bristol has more than 22,000 people on its housing waiting list and around 1,600 living in temporary accommodation. The city needed new and faster routes to delivering homes — particularly for single-person households, who are underserved by conventional housing supply.
Developed in conjunction with Bristol Housing Festival and Innovate UK, the brief was to deliver sustainable, high-quality, affordable accommodation using modern methods of construction. The homes contribute directly to Bristol City Council's Affordable Housing Delivery Plan and Corporate Strategy, and to the One City Plan commitment to provide affordable, secure and warm homes in a sustainable city with a healthy environment for all.
Funded through the Council's Housing Revenue Account and Homes England, the homes are designed to support temporary, move-on and long-term housing needs — with half allocated to single people moving on from homelessness.
Overcoming site barriers
Physical, logistical and contextual constraints that had stalled delivery
The plot sits at a junction between residential back gardens, a community centre, and local shops with flats above — creating real sensitivity around privacy, overshadowing and massing. Topographically, the land slopes from north to south, producing a step change in level between the street and the build area.
The ZED PODS in-house design team responded with a stepped modular layout, adjusting building heights in 225 mm increments to follow the natural gradient. This reduced the perceived height of the blocks and resolved the access challenge in a single move.
Overlooking and overshadowing were addressed by adapting window placement and roof pitch — reducing the impact on neighbouring properties while increasing daylight inside the homes. Lowering the roof pitch from 22° to 15° dropped the overall building height by 330 mm, which had a second benefit: it allowed the complete volumetric modules to be transported safely on local roads within height restrictions.
Given the constrained plot and its location in a car-free community, the scheme provides a single designated accessible parking space. Active travel is supported instead, through two large secure cycle stores, walkable access to local shops and bus routes, and well-lit pedestrian pathways — meeting mobility needs with minimal environmental impact.
Smarter by Design
Design Adaptation and Offsite Delivery
ZED PODS inherited a planning-approved scheme that required reworking to suit our modular system. The in-house architectural team undertook a full technical review, revising the scheme to meet the demands of offsite delivery while maintaining the approved site footprint and key planning principles, upgrading it to the latest thermal performance standards and full NDSS compliance.
The refinements were secured through a Non-Material Amendment application, validated in March 2024. These changes — including the redesigned mono-pitched roof — were what unlocked the scheme, allowing complete volumetric modules to reach the site. Generous internal ceiling heights of 2.5–2.6 m were retained throughout, preserving spatial quality.
Window placements were revised to optimise internal daylighting, improve symmetry on the gable elevations and reduce the risk of overlooking neighbouring gardens, with obscure-glazed windows added at the rear of each home to brighten internal corridors. Material specifications were upgraded, replacing timber-effect doors with anthracite grey triple-glazed high-performance units.
The single largest sustainability gain came from the solar array. The inherited design allowed three panels per building roof; the revised configuration accommodates fourteen — giving every home seven panels (3.08 kWp) generating up to 3,000 kWh of clean electricity a year, and taking the scheme to net zero operational carbon.
Placemaking and urban integration
Turning a derelict junction into somewhere people want to be
Set at a busy community junction, the project transforms a once underused, vehicle-dominated plot into a well-connected, people-focused place. The stepped form of the modular blocks follows the existing gradient in 225 mm increments, softening the development's mass and reducing its visual impact. Homes are oriented north-east to south-west to maximise solar gain and mitigate overlooking.
Externally, red brick and metal cladding create a contemporary aesthetic that complements both the surrounding residential stock and the adjacent community building. Ground-floor homes have defensible space with low walls and railings; first-floor homes are reached by private external staircases, giving each household a clear sense of ownership. Landscaped areas to the west provide semi-private space for residents, while the northern and southern boundaries are softly landscaped and open to the wider public realm.
No general car parking was provided, as the homes are intended for non-car-owning residents. The site's strong pedestrian connectivity and proximity to local amenities support this car-free approach and align with the Council's sustainability and transport priorities.
Social impact
115% of contracted social value, and a route out of reoffending
ZED PODS exceeded its contracted social value obligations on this project, delivering 115% of target — through reduced carbon emissions, maximised recycling of construction waste, use of local supply chains, wellbeing and training initiatives, and local skills and employment support.
ZED PODS is also an approved supplier under the Prisoners Building Homes programme, the national scheme that upskills prisoners, helps them access employment after release, and reduces the cycle of reoffending. Day-release prisoners earn the Living Wage and pay tax, National Insurance and victim support contributions, with the remainder supporting their families or their post-release resettlement costs.
Twelve day-release prisoners commuted daily to our manufacturing facility to work and train on Marshall Walk alongside our own workforce. The cohort achieved a reoffending rate below 3%, against a national average above 25% — saving UK taxpayers an estimated £1.4 million in reduced recidivism. ZED PODS is the largest employer under the PBH programme.
Outcome
A replicable model for difficult urban sites
Marshall Walk shows what MMC can do on the sites conventional construction walks away from. A dormant, awkward, steeply sloping plot at a sensitive community junction now holds twelve future-proof, social-rented homes — low carbon, high quality, and cheap to run for the people living in them.
The project is a testament to collaborative working, precision offsite manufacturing and architectural adaptation, and it sets a replicable model for similar urban infill schemes across the UK.
