House in a Walled Garden

 

The ambition for this project was to create an exemplary retirement community that draws the most from its unique setting.  A walled garden, which had fallen into disuse over the last fifty years, was the site.  Themes of shelter, protection and growth helped inform a site strategy which capitalises on existing remnants of the garden forming unique and variable sub-settlements within the larger whole.

 

The central idea is that everyone, irrespective of age, shares the aspiration to live in a beautiful designed, inclusive and stimulating environment, supported by first class services and maintenance regimes.  Over forty homes are distributed across the site, conceived from the outset with accessibility, flexibility and assisted living in mind; the elegant yet robust material palette and architectural approach is sensitively designed to celebrate the setting.  Communal greenhouses and allotments are distibuted across the site with shared outdoor and indoor eating areas for formal and informal gatherings.

​