2010 HAPPI WINNING SCHEMES > Completed Winner

 

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This scheme has the crafted elegance of an Oxbridge quad. Many of its 86 2-bed apartments for market sale, rent and shared ownership are presented as terraces of gable-fronted villas. Faced in a mix of smart brickwork and bronzed copper cladding with dark powder-coated windows and generous balconies, the detailing is consistently smart throughout, from wide corridors panelled in dark woods serving the apartments, to solid oak planters and a carved stone Heald Farm Court sign.

St Helens set out to achieve this quality of development by gifting the land to the developer Helena Partnerships and then workshopping the design with the developer, healthcare provider MHA and the architects. The mix of independent living and extra care has 850 m2 of facilities intended to serve as a village hub for another 166 properties in the surrounding area, including new bungalows developed simultaneously on a remote site.

So the layout has to work for three distinct users: the visitor must feel welcome, the self-reliant resident should not feel institutionalised, and the more dependent should feel secure. The design does this by dividing apartments into three blocks enveloping a services hub. The most independent-minded residents live in the street frontage block along Sturgess Street and can nip over to the hub under a covered walkway. Frailer residents are able to access the services without going outdoors, routes helpfully short and direct for those whose sense of direction is a little fuzzy.

There are two routes for the visitor into the hub, one pedestrian and one vehicular, which converge at the concierge desk at the mouth of the services hub. Once signed in, visitors have access to a range of dining, leisure and healthcare facilities, including spas and a huge games room. Although these are aimed at those in retirement, no-one interested in joining in is turned away and MHA reports that the hub has become the area’s liveliest resort with activities drawing a few users still in their 40s.

Between the hub and accommodation blocks are landscaped spaces, which are fully enclosed for protection to the back of the site but are more open on the street side so visitors can also enjoy them, although widely overlooked so that anyone entering them is surveilled.

The scheme is both heated and cooled with heat pumps feeding off 10 deep bore holes and hot water is provided by a solar thermal system.

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