The residential care home will contain all ensuite bedrooms, a private garden, and has been designed to modern standards that deliver excellent infection control. The typical bedroom and cluster arrangements of the building are taken from our most recent Care Home project, Marigold House, which is currently being constructed on site for CBC. The independent living scheme is comprised of 55 one-bedroom and 33 two-bedroom apartments.

All apartments have been designed to be suitable for wheelchair users and easily adaptable to changing needs, as well as 5 of the apartments being designed to the higher wheelchair standard. The design is aimed at building a sense of community between all residents and combatting social isolation. All units are linked to a central “core” with shared facilities such as a café/bistro, medical rooms, hair and beauty salon, community/multi-purpose space, multigenerational activity space and associated facilities.

The entire space will be connected internally, with large gardens and walks planned in and around the site to encourage use of the space by residents as well as the local community. There are also ongoing plans and discussions to provide further accommodation, in the form of apartments and bungalows for older people seeking to downsize, on a site across the road from the site.

The whole building has been designed to meet international energy performance standards, known as Passivhaus, to help reduce the building’s energy demands now and in the future. This will overtake our current project at Marigold House, which is also being built as a Passivhaus. Steppingley Road is set to be the largest registered Passivhaus care provision in the UK. Being a multidisciplinary consultancy, our in-house services were able to easily collaborate throughout the scheme, utilising cross-working ArchiCAD models and holding regular Design Team Meetings. During these meetings, client/end user requests could be efficiently implemented within working designs. Our in-house Passivhaus consultants worked closely with external specialist consultants to ensure energy efficient measures were utilised throughout.

We wanted to ensure maximum access/engagement with the external environment as this is proven to help maintain a healthy lifestyle. Allowance was made at all 4 levels of the building to have access to external spaces, particularly on the ground floor where private walkways and seating areas are provided to encourage residents to move and lightly exercise whilst engaging with those they live with. A community garden with raised vegetable plots will be included in the landscape design, allowing residents to keep up with their independent hobbies.