Third Age Housing
Pollard Thomas Edwards (PTE) has been designing for older people, in both the public and private sectors, for over thirty years. Our schemes have won awards, but more importantly we have taken part in the debate about improving housing for older people, and our buildings have repeatedly expanded the horizons of the sector.
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Pollard Thomas Edwards
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Age concerns
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Supporting independence
10 Providing extra care 12 Connecting the community 14 The demands of dementia 16 Helpful buildings 18 Cohousing 20 Case Study 1 - Lingham Court Stockwell 22 Case Study 2 - Princess Alexandra Stanmore 24 Case Study 3 - Ellesmere House Chelsea 26 Case Study 4 - Roden Court Hornsey 28 Case Study 5 - New Ground Cohousing Barnet 30 Case Study 6 - St Luke’s Muswell Hill 32 Case Study 7 - Featherstone Lodge Forest Hill 34 Case Study 8 - Protheroe House Tottenham 35 Case Study 9 - Central Chelmsford Essex 36 Case Study 10 - St Peter’s and St Andrew’s Stoke Newington 37 Case Study 11 - Hammerson House Barnet 38 Case Study 12 - HAPPI 40 Further projects 42 Conclusion 43 Contact
Opposite: PTE offices at Diespeker Wharf
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Pollard Thomas Edwards
PTE’s commitment to quality and innovation has been rewarded with more than 180 design awards and a high level of repeat business. Our schemes for the elderly have been recognised by the Building Better Healthcare Awards, and by Housing Design, and British and National Homebuilders Design Awards. At the same time we have developed unrivalled experience in architect-led property development since the 1980s. Much of our work depends upon our ability to identify opportunities on difficult and complex urban sites. This has led to us developing inventive ways of thinking about schemes for older people: how they integrate into the surrounding community and how they might be financed.
We are also committed to community participation in our projects, actively seeking community views as part of the planning process: the enthusiastic involvement of local people has been a crucial factor in the success of some of PTE’s largest projects, including the regeneration of whole neighbourhoods. We have built on this experience in several of the projects illustrated here. These projects all meet a clear care need, contribute to the work of the local authority and health providers, and complement the efforts of voluntary groups.
PTE offices at Diespeker Wharf
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Top left: Day centre foyer, Ellesmere House Bottom left: Lingham Court Top right: Lingham Court Bottom right: Bishop Wilfred Wood Court Opposite: Sensory garden, Ellesmere House
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Age concerns
Getting older isn’t what it used to be. Increasing numbers of people spend nearly as much time in ‘retirement’ as they did in work or bringing up a family, and this can be a very active phase, including a mixture of voluntary and paid work, and perhaps further education and travel. Inevitably, though, older people cannot depend on robust good health, and progressively require good access to medical services and advice on adapting to their changing circumstances and needs. Demands on the home change from space and numbers of rooms, to ease of use. Many people would like to stay in their family home indefinitely and there are adaptations that can be carried out to make this possible. For others, however, this is neither financially viable nor desirable in practice. With their horizons able to expand as work, family and other responsibilities ease, many people experience the move to a purpose-built, easily maintainable home or flat as liberating, both in meeting a current need, and in removing future uncertainty.
‘The number of people aged 65 and over is projected to increase by about two-thirds to 16.1 million… and will account for nearly 23 per cent of the total population in 2032.’ Office for National Statistics
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Supporting independence
Recognising that older people want to be in control of their own lives is the big change in recent decades. As the number of over-65s has grown the variety of housing for older people has expanded to meet this aspiration. For most of the last century there was a clear distinction between the fortunate few who were able to stay in their own home, often paying for the care (and maintenance of the building) that made this possible, and those unable to live independently because they lacked the unpaid support from a partner or wider family.
The inevitable next step for most was the Old People’s Home, perceived as inflexible in routine, lacking in privacy and taking little account of individual needs. Having control over your home means having your own front door and deciding how involved you want to be with friends, neighbours and family - just as you always have done. Delivering care to the home where possible is now government policy; people can decide how the support they need should be delivered, as well as where they want to live.
‘It is my belief that there are thousands like me, older people who need a catalyst to get them going... Sixty-year-olds today are willing to keep active if society gives us a chance.’ Peter Price, 70, runner, climber, cyclist and Chair of Sport England, Yorkshire
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Sheltered housing has grown by offering an attractive combination of an active independent social life with access to care and support as insurance against future upheavals. Extra care takes the sheltered housing approach further, offering a home that is easy to run, with access to care and support should you need it, and lets you get on with doing the things you enjoy. It is integrated with the surrounding community, not set apart, and new tenure-blind models reinforce this ethos.
Top left: Sandringham Gardens Top right: Ellesmere House Above left: Lingham Court Opposite: Residents at Lingham Court
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‘...residents can grow flowers, fruit and vegetables in raised beds, or walk and sit among well maintained lawns and flowers...’
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Providing extra care
An extra care home should enhance quality of life by providing: — your own home — freedom from worry about the building — easy access to advice about a wide range of services and activities - everything from a blocked drain to computer classes or physiotherapy — beautiful, secure surroundings with all kinds of activities from a spa to gardening, and trips to cinemas and theatres — a place for friends and family to visit, often with guest suites or flats where they can stay
Each house or flat has its own front door, and inside it is decorated and furnished to the taste of the resident. The building fabric is designed to make adaptation easy, should mobility, for example, or eyesight become impaired. At its best, extra care housing gives residents as much support and security as they need, with as much privacy and independence as they want.
The extra care concept allows people to take as much or as little advantage of domestic, care and emergency services as they need. The extra support that may be needed as people become older is delivered to their home, which is designed to accommodate it.
Right: Lawns and mature planting at Roden Court Above: Maintained communal garden space Opposite: Private garden space at The Old Royal Free
‘It is a concept rather than a housing type… people who live there have their own homes.’ Third Age Housing
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Ellesmere House
The ‘activity street’ brings the life of the street and daily visitors to the development; it is the key to the wayfinding strategy. 12
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Connecting the community
The key to extending independent living into retirement and beyond is offering access to a whole range of activities, while giving the opportunity for privacy. We don’t want to be suddenly cut off from going to the shops, having friends to visit or stay, or going to the game on a Saturday, because we have decided to move to a home that provides more backup. This is an opportunity for architectural ingenuity to come into its own. The view from our living room window, and the experience of the route from the street to our front door form our relationship with the world at large – sometimes challenging, always busy. We give a lot of thought to these relationships, working with residents and experienced managers, and here we show some examples of how links between the public realm and the social spaces of purpose-built housing can be planned.
‘The striking design of Lingham Court and its use as a local hub for a range of older people’s clubs in Stockwell makes this development a rich asset, not just for people living there, but for the whole community.’ Rona Nicholson, London Field Director, Housing Corporation
Top feft: Goldhawk Road entrance Middle right: Lingham Court garden Bottom right: Visitors and residents can see all the Lingham Court common facilities and the garden from the entrance
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‘When residents explore the secure garden, carers… acknowledge the walkabouts as expressions of an autonomy that their charges can still make but can no longer articulate clearly.’ Fay Wertheimer, The Guardian, on Southport’s Birch Abbey Dementia Care Home
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The demands of dementia
For dementia sufferers some problems are the inverse of the issues connected with loss of mobility and dexterity that affect many older people. The loss of the ability to ‘think coherently’ can cause confusion and high states of anxiety. We need to find a balance between the need for security and the need to provide easy access to common facilities and garden spaces - as well as access to the outside world for the more able. It is increasingly common for extra care developments to be designed to cope with the possibility of dementia sufferers living in any of the houses or flats, and therefore good design is particularly critical. An extra care flat should allow a partner to care for a dementia sufferer for longer than would otherwise be possible, because the right support is available on the spot and the external environment will be managed and secure.
At Ellesmere House, the care offices, the kitchens and the television rooms are given curved walls to aid orientation. To complement this, natural light is maximised and all residents’ rooms and common rooms open out onto a secure garden full of variety, movement, colour and scent. At Lingham Court different floors are colour coded to emphasise their individuality. Recent research has suggested that “elderly dementia patients exposed to bright light during daytime hours do better mentally and physically…”, matching the benefits of some drug regimes; PTE realise that good natural lighting inside and access to secure, attractive outside space is more critical than ever.
The experience of dementia sufferers varies a good deal, but apart from disorientation, there are other common issues that can be addressed in well designed buildings. Macular degeneration is associated with dementia sufferers, and we counter this with strong colours combined with forms for specific functions.
Left: Colour and shape coded nurses’ station Above: Colour and shape coded contemplation space Opposite: Ellesmere secure sensory garden
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Helpful buildings
Good buildings help support independent living for older people in their details as well as their layout - handrails that are a pleasure for stiff hands to grasp, leading to a seat in a pleasant niche where you can sit and talk; sunny sheltered gardens where you can grow flowers, fruit and vegetables in raised beds, or walk and sit, surrounded by well maintained lawns and flowers. Extra care developments have common rooms and facilities to accommodate many different activities, and PTE always aim to use this opportunity to the full, with different spaces being quiet or lively, bright or secluded and restful. Making the right spaces for all the things people want to do helps to stimulate and enliven the surroundings for everyone.
Above: Contemplation space is distinctive in light, shape and acoustic quality Right: Activity street, Ellesmere
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Making homes easy to use when mobility is restricted is an opportunity for good design, not an excuse for wide empty spaces and institutional fittings. The ‘assisted bathing suite’ can be transformed into a spa; and generous circulation with views, and comfortable spaces to sit and chat, makes what could be just a corridor into a place for interaction and enjoyment.
Thoughtful design can ensure that a home is warm, not stuffy. New extra care homes are super insulated and planned to take advantage of sunlight from autumn to spring, while controlling glare and the potential for overheating in the summer. Ingenious use of planting and existing mature trees can help here, and because the supply of heating and hot water is centrally managed, sustainable on-site energy generation is particularly suitable for maintaining pleasant, low cost underfloor heating. As these sustainable techniques are proven in use, PTE are always looking for ways to maximise their benefits, using them in harmony with the site to make the most of reliable low-cost energy.Providing for cable television, internet and telephone services to all living rooms and bedrooms is now standard for extra care housing. Less obvious but no less essential is the thermostatic control of hot water to avoid scalding and the careful monitoring of supply and storage systems to ensure hygiene is maintained and bacterial infection prevented.
‘...a home that is easy to run, and that gives access to all the care and support you need to maintain your independence, doing the things you enjoy’
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‘When residents explore the secure garden, carers… acknowledge the walkabouts as expressions of an autonomy that their charges can still make but can no longer articulate clearly.’ Fay Wertheimer, The Guardian, on Southport’s Birch Abbey Dementia Care Home
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Cohousing
PTE has been involved with cooperative housing since the practice’s earliest projects in Camden and Notting Hill. This legacy has informed our extensive work in community engagement and consultation-led regeneration. At the same time we have designed a wide variety of developments for older people. This is a time of rapid and positive change in the development of housing for older people. The theme of much of this change is the need to replace the common expectation of of a relatively inactive, potentially isolated retirement with a changing mix of work, leisure, travel, socialising and education, among other activities, as we get older.
Through their involvement with providers such as Hanover, co-housing groups are not only designing their own future, but the influencing future housing that will be offered to older people across the full range of tenures and locations. PTE is at the heart of this movement, and we are learning a lot from our clients, as outlined in the brief description below on the Barnet project with OWCH – more detail on this is provided in our separate case study.
These enhanced aspirations require suitable, affordable, and sustainable housing if they are to become reality; the design of this housing calls for the engaged input of those who will live in it. Working with co-housing groups is the most immediate way of judging the success of what developers, providers and designers propose.
Above: OWCH workshops at PTE offices Opposite: OWCH members
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Case study 1: Lingham Court Stockwell ‘Now I have a flat - a nice sized bedroom, lounge, very nice bathroom and kitchen. I go to the exercise class here, that’s good.’ David Lingham Court Resident
Lingham Court is Metropolitan Housing Trust’s competition-winning extra care scheme for Lambeth Social Services. Our brief was to build 30 affordable flats to wheelchair standards without any funding assistance, and PTE developed a concept that would achieve this brief from the sale of contemporary quality housing on the same site. The scheme also met the challenge posed by the site’s position over two underground Tube lines by using light gauge steel panels prefabricated off-site for both the floors and load bearing walls. Bathrooms and wheelchair accessible kitchens were also prefabricated off-site as ‘pods’ and lifted fully furnished into place.
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The distinctive form of the building is derived from the arrangement of the sheltered flats in two crescents, creating a southwest-facing private garden which provides a tranquil external space in this busy urban location. The street face on the Clapham Road consists of a five storey block with a retail unit at ground floor. Nestling between the crescent and the street frontage segment is the ‘egg tower’, which provides a focal point for the scheme. Although the building does not have a day centre, a combination of extensive consultation before the plannning application was submitted, and a transparent, easily legible relationship between the entrance, the social rooms and the garden has encouraged a range of local community groups to use the facilities at Lingham Court.
Client Metropolitan Housing Trust Value £9.5m Dates 2003-2005
Top right: Arrangements of commmunal rooms Above right: Clapham Road Above: Under construction Right: Private garden Opposite top: Garden Opposite bottom: Path of the underground line
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Case study 2: Princess Alexandra Stanmore
Client Jewish Care Value ÂŁ23m Dates 2014-2016
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Pollard Thomas Edwards won a Jewish Care competition in late 2013 to design a new development on the site of the existing care home set in 16 acres of stunning landscaped grounds in the greenbelt. After a rigorous brief development process with the client, a detailed consent was obtained for a care-driven design in May 2015. The increased footprint over an existing outline consent was justified on therapeutic grounds, with the support of the University of Stirling’s Dementia Services Development Centre.
The new development will comprise: a 64 bedroom dementia care nursing home divided into 4 clusters of 16 rooms; 16 independent living suites; 48 independent living 1 and 2 bedroom flats; shared dining and social facilities and a day centre. At the heart of the new development will be a dramatic double height clubhouse space, with restaurant, cafĂŠ, synagogue and fitness facilities. PTE is currently developing the brief through consultation with the client.
Key Independent Living Nursing Care and Assisted Living Clubhouse
Top: Overview of proposals Above: View of Princess Alexandra from the rear gardens
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Case study 3: Ellesmere House Chelsea Client Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea Value £14m Dates 2004-2007
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Ellesmere House is a new 60-bed elderly people’s home and day centre arranged around courtyard gardens off the Fulham Road in Chelsea. Financed by private flats on the street frontage, it replaces a 1960s home that was no longer fit for purpose. Although the cross subsidy financial model would not work in today’s climate, other aspects of the scheme are relevant to current conditions. By improving the planning of the site we were able to: — Provide fifty new flats for sale as well as reproviding the existing elderly person’s home to improved space standards — Make a visual link from the high street into the gardens at the centre of the scheme — Integrate the facilities of a new day centre with those of the care home while maintaining a secure environment for service users with mild dementia
The home is organised around a glazed foyer which orientates visitors as they arrive and which links the street with the lower-ground courtyard garden and the mature trees beyond. From here an internal street which gives access to the day centre facilities looks down over the courtyard garden through curved, coloured glazing. Throughout the home strong colours and curved forms identify communal facilities such as nurses’ stations and dining rooms, which works well for those with visual impairment, as well as reinforcing the wayfinding strategy for those with dementia. Colour combinations were developed with experienced staff from Kensington Social Services, and customised for the dementia and nursing care units. The key to accommodating Ellesmere’s functions on a restricted urban site is to exploit the potential of different parts of the site. The lower-ground floor rooms have French windows onto the secure garden, which has been designed as a space where those with dementia can wander safely, experiencing a range of scents and colours; the movement of plants - and the contrasting shapes of the tactile artworks by Ekkehardt Altenburger. The ground floor opens onto a contemplation garden with a path curving around mature trees to encourage theraputic exercise, while rooms on the upper floors have views of both gardens and the picturesque Chelsea roofscape. Ellesmere House received a Building Better Healthcare Award in 2007.
Top left: Nightingale Place entrance Top right: Activity street overlooking the garden Above: Cross-section: Fulham Road to Contemplation Garden Right: Colour studies for Nightingale Place entrance Opposite top: Contemplation garden Opposite bottom: Organisation diagram
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Case study 4: Roden Court Hornsey Client One Housing Group Value ÂŁ23m Dates 2005-2012
Roden Court was a series of 1960s buildings containing occupied former YWCA studio flats set within a wooded garden sloping down towards Metropolitan Open Space. The new development preserves this mature landscape as the setting for new homes for existing tenants with apartments for sale and an extra care development. There are 138 new homes, including forty extra care flats, four larger flats for affordable rent for families and forty-four flats sold on the open market. In addition, forty-eight existing tenants have been re-housed on site; they only had to move once in order to minimise disruption. The design consists of two long buildings which creates a central open space for the use of all residents. These buildings rise towards Hornsey Lane to create two slim towers. One of the blocks then extends further back, and steps down in scale to a single storey to address the garden and open green space beyond.
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With this development we have looked to help the client, One Housing Group, establish the kind of links to the local community that have been so successful at Lingham Court. Roden is significant in envisaging a mixture of tenures on the same site. The message from charities in the sector, such as Help the Aged and the ILC, and from the HCA, CABE and CLG is that the future of older persons’ housing is to be integrated – physically and socially – with the surrounding community. Mixed and flexible tenure models are important components of developments that are financially robust and will provide active, well connnected communities. Roden Court is currently on site.
Top: Communal space Middle: The YWCA flats Above: Phasing to allow residents to remain in their homes with one move to a new flats Opposite, top: Roden Court from Hornsey Lane Opposite, bottom: Residents in lounge
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Case study 5: New Ground Cohousing Barnet This pioneering cohousing scheme creates 25 customised homes and a shared ‘co-house’ clustered around a walled garden. The members of Older Women’s Cohousing (OWCH) have been working together for many years, pioneering the idea of a supportive community for women in later life. PTE collaborated with OWCH to design their ideal community on a site in Barnet, acquired for the group by not-for-profit retirement housing provider Hanover.
The women’s brief was very clear: their own sustainable homes, with shared facilities that create a sense of community. The collaborative design process that PTE facilitated was a learning exercise in understanding the realities of planning and building. The architects worked with the group to evolve a T-shaped layout focussed around shared facilities and communal gardens that gave every home its own outlook and sunlight. PTE has developed an interactive design process for cohousing groups and is providing a full service from concept to completion. Client Hanover Group Value £3.7m Dates 2010-2016
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Top: View of the scheme Middle left: Street view looking west Center: Southwest view from balcony into the courtyard Bottom: The residents and members of OWCH at home Bottom right: Workshops held with the cohousing group at PTE’s offices Opposite: Conceptual drawing of the scheme
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Case study 6: St Luke’s Muswell Hill St Luke’s is a complex and sensitive site, set within one of the most attractive areas of North London – its northern boundary consists of fine Edwardian terraced houses and to the south lies Highgate Woods. It housed an inpatient hospital for mental health patients from the mid-1920s, but has been largely unused since 2009.
Roseneath – built as a private house in the mid-late 19th century and converted for hospital use in the late 1920s. Interior much altered. Local heritage designation.
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The site currently contains a nationally listed Grade II neo-Georgian administration building dating from the 1920s and two locally listed and now converted Victorian houses, as well as associated ancillary buildings and extensive gardens with mature trees.
Administration Building – purpose-built Neo-Georgian building for the new hospital (1928-30) and now nationally Listed Grade II. Both the exterior and interior are well preserved.
Norton Lees – built as a private house in 1875 in an eccentric mixture of styles. Converted and extended for hospital use in the late 1920s. Interior much altered. Local heritage designation. Original front garden degraded.
PTE has obtained planning permission for an exemplary housing scheme of around 160 new mixed-tenure homes within a carefully preserved and enhanced green setting. Our proposals include substantial houses as well as apartments, with an emphasis on accommodation for the over-55s.
Hanover and PTE are also working closely with the Cohousing Woodside, a group of local residents who wish to develop a cohousing scheme, and part of the site will be used to create around 35 mixed tenure houses and flats which will share a garden and a community house.
Client Hanover Group and Hill Value ÂŁ30m Dates 2010-current
Above and top: Views of the scheme Left: Site plan Opposite: Existing buildings including a Grade II listed administration building dating from the 1920s
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Case study 7: Featherstone Lodge Forest Hill
Featherstone Lodge is a late nineteenth century detached house in Forest Hill used until recently as a drug rehabilitation centre. The site was purchased by retirement housing provider Hanover when they were approached by local residents who had formed a cohousing group after a previous development proposal for the site fell through. With beautiful views, a 9m fall across the site and some fine mature trees, Featherstone Lodge represents a very unusual opportunity to make an architecturally striking new development among the trees that will enhance the setting of the converted lodge. Our design has been developed in collaboration with the co-housing members as the result of a series of design workshops exploring their aspirations for the character and layout of the site. The final proposals, which have been submitted for planning, are for the existing lodge to be converted into self-contained flats with communal facilities.
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Client Hanover Group Value ÂŁ7m Dates 2010-current
Top: Proposals Above: Featherstone Lodge 19th century building Opposite, top: Aspirational images Opposite, middle: Workshop with cohousing members Below: Working drawing of elevation
Five new cottages will be arranged around the gardens surrounding the lodge and there will be 18 one- and two-bedroom flats in the lower gardens furthest away from the lodge. Two new houses will also be built on the site of the former gatehouse. All the homes will look onto a shared landscaped space and have access to a range of communal amenities.
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Case study 8: Protheroe House Tottenham
Client One Housing Group Value ÂŁ7.5m Dates 2012-2016
Above, right: Landscaped gardens Above, left: View up to High Road Right: Residents enjoying the landscaped courtyard Far right: CafĂŠ
We are replacing an existing 1960s sheltered housing scheme just off Tottenham High Road with modern extra care housing and community facilities arranged in a horseshoe shape around a central courtyard. The scheme will include 50 one- and two-bedroom flats. Community facilities will include a wellbeing centre and therapy rooms, dining facilities, laundry, spaces for community hire for meetings and activities such as aerobics and dance, IT teaching spaces and access to gardens. Accommodation for staff and visitors will also be provided on the site.
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The scheme will be entered via a double-height entrance hall giving access to a cafe open to the public and allowing views through to the landscaped courtyard. The south-facing landscaped gardens will form the heart of the scheme, and will include a patio area linked to the communal dining room and providing space for al fresco dining and other activities. Ground-floor flats will also have private patio areas directly accessed from French windows. All homes on upper floors will have a private balcony or roof terrace.
Case study 9: Central Chelmsford Essex Third-age housing forms an integral part of PTE’s masterplan for the redevelopment of the former Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) campus following ARU’s relocation to a new location. The masterplan area is located next to the rail and bus stations and the proposals play a key role in the borough’s plans to regenerate the west end of Chelmsford with over 500 new homes; a new food superstore and other retail; 8000sqm of commercial and community facilities; and the refurbishment of a number of important historic buildings.
The scheme is currently on site, and the third age housing will be completed as part of the first phase. Sixty-five one- and two-bedroom apartments for third age living lie at the heart of this scheme, grouped around and overlooking a courtyard garden, and with communal spaces including a dining room, film room, health suite, and laundry.
The key design decision to include third age housing in a city centre location and near a major transport hub was made as a result of PTE’s involvement in the Housing our Ageing Population (HAPPI) project – commissioned by the HCA to set out the case for change in the provision of housing for older people. The HAPPI report highlights the desirability of city centre locations and of designing homes around a social hub and communal facilities.
Top, right: view looking down Canons Passage Above: masterplan sketch Right: view of Knight Place
Client Genesis Housing Association Value £130m Dates 2008-current
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Case study 10: St Peter’s and St Andrew’s Stoke Newington This scheme will see the demolition of two existing sheltered housing blocks adjacent to the Grade II* listed St Andrew’s Church, and the construction of two five-storey assisted care residential blocks for dementia sufferers. These two blocks will be linked by a single storey building providing communal facilities, and the new buildings will wrap around a landscaped courtyard garden. PTE was appointed to review a planning-approved scheme prepared previously by other architects in order to ensure compliance with current standards and to ensure that it will address current thinking and guidance on residential accommodation for those with dementia.
The wayfinding for those with dementia is critical to the successful use of the building, and so the internal layout has been revised to avoid corridors without meaningful destinations. The courtyard garden has also been redesigned to deliver more appropriate spaces for those with dementia. The scheme will deliver 36 self-contained affordable flats (four of which will have two bedrooms) together with dining, lounge and therapy facilities, and a day care centre. Our client, Family Mosaic, see this as an exemplar project, and we have ensured that it will comply with Lifetime Homes, London Housing Design Guide standards and Wheelchair Housing space standards.
We maximised accessibility for wheelchair users, and redesigned the single storey link building, creating improved activity, therapy, rest and seating areas and improving the relationship with the landscaped garden.
Above: view looking out onto the communal courtyard Right: view looking down the communal corridor overlooking the courtyard
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Client Family Mosaic Value £7m Dates 2012-2016
Case study 11: Hammerson House Barnet This comprehensive redevelopment will comprise a better quality consistent building. The aim is to create a presence on Bishops Avenue, bring in more daylight to the internal layout and to connect with the landscape, a real amenity – featuring a large garden with mature trees. After exploring various options on the plans to achieve these ends, the chosen scheme orientates the internal bedroom layout to maximise daylight and views to the outside for the bedrooms. Specialist care is at the forefront of the project’s strategic aims, and the new design promotes sociable spaces for gatherings and quiet areas, an activity kitchen, café, larger lifts, a proposal for market stalls and therapy rooms.
Through a careful analysis of the local architectural styles of the Garden Suburb, and working within the principles of the London Plan and other applicable policies, the proposal will provide116 resident rooms overall, to deliver the quality of environment required for exemplar dementia care. The existing streetscape will be improved using a contemporary interpretation of traditional forms and materials, and the scheme reintegrated with the surrounding landscape.
Client Nightingale Hammerson Value £36m Dates 2014-current
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Case study 12: HAPPI Housing our Ageing Population: Panel for Innovation PTE in partnership with Levitt Bernstein Associates won a bid to provide consultant support to an expert panel of influential figures on the future of housing for older people. Our job was to steer the government commission, chaired by Lord Best, through an inquiry tasked with considering ‘best practice’ and opportunities for design innovation. The aim was to guide government policy and ensure that future housing meets both the needs and aspirations of our ageing population. The four month project was underpinned by a strong research focus involving international study visits, stakeholder workshops and policy analysis, leading to a publication and a short film. In partnership with Design for Homes, we worked for the Homes & Communities Agency, who project managed the commission on behalf of the Department of Health and the Department of Communities & Local Government.
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‘We like the new exciting image of the building. I like the L-shape of the apartment because I look across from my bedroom to my balcony and get lots of sun.’ Jacqueline van Wijngaarden, resident
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Further projects
Old Royal Free Square, Islington
This project transformed a redundant hospital into a major public space and a thriving residential community. The 182 new homes include a complete sheltered scheme for the elderly. Some are painstakingly inserted behind the retained facades and others form new pavilion blocks, which create a grand forecourt. At the heart of the scheme is a new London square with a pedestrian link to the centre of Islington. Client Circle 33 Housing Trust / New Islington & Hackney Housing Association Award Europa Nostra Diploma of Merit / RIBA Regional Housing Award / Civic Trust Award
Frestonia Community Project, Kensington
In this scheme thirty sheltered flats, together with accommodation for a warden and communal rooms, form part of a larger residential development. The sheltered apartments centre around a large communal garden and common room. Client
Notting Hill Housing Trust
Sandringham Gardens, Barnet
This project contains 31 flats and houses aimed at retired purchasers. We developed a compact fourstorey block with steep gabled roofs. Client
Croudace Special Projects
Mary Seacole House, Kensal Town
This scheme provides 25 self-contained sheltered flats. Interconnecting communal spaces, including a garden and a sitting room, add to the residents’ enjoyment of the building. Client
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Network Housing Association
Pollard Thomas Edwards
Lee Samuel House, Brixton
This sheltered accommodation for 28 elderly people exploits circulation areas within the building to provide valuable spaces for the residents to pause and talk. The scheme also includes a warden’s house and a landscaped garden. Client Carib Housing Association (now incorporated into Presentation Housing Association)
Bishop Wilfred Wood Court, West Ham The second scheme for Carib Housing Association provides self-contained sheltered flats combined with a three-bedroom warden’s house. A doubleheight orangery provides a sunny informal sitting area overlooking the street and linking the two floors. Client Carib Housing Association (now incorporated into Presentation Housing Association)
Riverside and Maple Lodges, Wembley
A mix of Category 2 sheltered flats and a care home for the frail and elderly form a continuous crescent, giving all residents views out over green and wooded surroundings. Client Award
Network Housing Association Civic Trust Commendation 1996
Goldhawk Road, Shepherd’s Bush
A sheltered housing scheme where ‘the special needs of the elderly and disabled can be met in a building form which displays the panache of private sector development’, according to the Architects’ Journal. Client
Notting Hill Housing Trust and ASRA Housing Association
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Conclusion
Being good at socially responsible architecture that is commercially astute is about more than just skills and technical know-how. It calls for a deeper belief in the capacity of the built environment to improve the well-being of older people, and a commitment to working across disciplines in order to develop meaningful solutions to the housing needs of tomorrow. In the long term, we hope that our commitment to the sector will contribute to future innovation in a virtuous circle of learning and development. PTE is keen for opportunities to build on the success of our earlier pioneering mixed-use extra care schemes, not only in order to realise the ambitions of our clients but also to generate new and better solutions. These ambitions are steered by the three-pronged strategy that governs all of our output. We aim to match design excellence, social process, and commercial acumen in our approach to all that we do, never losing sight of the fact that in any work of good architecture, people always come first.
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Pollard Thomas Edwards
Contact
Patrick Devlin RIBA
Stephen Morris RIBA
Patrick joined PTE in 2003, appointed Director in 2012 and became a Partner in 2014.
Stephen joined PTE in 2010 and was appointed Associate in 2014.
Patrick leads PTE’s initiatives in Third Age Housing. In 2009, he coordinated the highly influential HAPPI report - Housing our Aged Population Panel for Innovation. His current preoccupation is co-housing, an innovative form of cooperative housing well suited to older people. He writes and speaks eloquently on the subject, drawing on all the latest research and personal experience.
Working closely with partner Patrick Devlin to manage PTE’s Third Age Housing projects, Stephen also has responsibility for sharing the team’s knowledge and expertise throughout the practice. He oversees project teams, liaises with clients and the wider design team and leads regular reviews to champion design excellence.
Patrick has long experience in the housing, mixed-use and regeneration sectors, and has both designed and delivered a series of successful and awardwinning projects, ranging from large-scale masterplans to infill sites and refurbishments.
Stephen is also a keen member of PTE’s consultation group. By engaging residents and stakeholders in the design process, he gains their trust and produces responsive and intelligent answers to their needs and aspirations. stephen.morris@ptea.co.uk
patrick.devlin@ptea.co.uk
Third Age Housing
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Diespeker Wharf 38 Graham Street London N1 8JX T 020 7336 7777 mail@ptea.co.uk @ptearchitects www.pollardthomasedwards.co.uk