Slough, United Kingdom

Project Brief

The design of a new, and now constructed, 68-bed residential, nursing and specialist dementia care home.


Outcome

This reserved matters application dealt with a parcel of land identified to deliver specialist housing accommodation under an outline permission, as part of the wider Shinfield West development. The site is located to the west of the existing Shinfield village centre, this allows for the expansion of the existing village centre within the approved masterplan for 1,200 dwellings as part of Wokingham Borough Councils housing needs strategy. The proposed C2 Care Home is located to the south-east of the specialist housing zone.

In addition, a new sewer for the residential development to the south runs through the development site, thus reducing the available land as a 6 metre easement is required for future maintenance. As a result it was decided to locate the care home to the west of this easement and utilise the remainder of the site for servicing and car parking. The detail design concept was to have active frontages facing the new loop road with the maximum number of bedrooms looking out onto this. Furthermore, the day lounge is located to look out over this road too, with an arrival courtyard created in the centre accessed from the new loop road to allow convenient drop-off. This allows views through the building to the residents gardens beyond.

The building was conceived as a series of simple brick ‘tubes’ with punctured windows and rendered stop ends with the gables facing onto the arrival courtyard/loop road, and a tiled roof which picks up on the proposed residential units surrounding the site with boarding elements used to help break up the areas of render and add visual interest.

The home provides a high standard of living and communal accommodation utilising traditional materials in a modern contemporary style suitable for the location. The proposal looks to provide the best care needed with indoor and mainly outdoor activities


Details

Client: Castleoak
Value: £6.5m
Scope of Services: Stage 0-6
Programme: Full planning permission granted in 2018
Site Area: 0.50 Ha, 1.2 acres
Total m2: 3350 m2
Accommodation: 68 Care Bedrooms

Category: Administrative  Type: Exterior  Views: 321  Date: 23/02/2024