The original facility occupied a Grade II listed building in a Conservation Area, so it was necessary to take an innovative design approach in response to heritage constraints. Our client’s objective was to ensure sustainability of the existing care home that required the development of a modern, purpose-built facility and an upgrade to the existing care home to modern care standards. This increased the number of beds from 28 to 59, accommodated through a new ‘wing’ extension and camouflaged against its landscape backdrop by a green wall.
The green wall is the stand-out feature of the scheme’s design, equipped with an automatic irrigation function that ensures plants receive the correct quantity of water and nutrition. The new wing is linked to the existing building by a ha-ha style semi-underground link, ensuring connectivity whilst maintaining a degree of visual separation for heritage, amenity, and landscape reasons.
Our involvement in the scheme ensured that the local need for specialist care provision would be met, the long-term future of the valued heritage asset secured, retention and creation of jobs in the local community, the health and wellbeing of existing and future residents of the care home, and that Kingsley Healthcare continues to operate a commercially successful care facility in this location.
