DEVELOPMENT: COMPLETED 2008 LOCATION: HATFIELD CLIENT: SANCTUARY CARE
Comet Square, Hatfield
118 Bedroom Care Home
The development site is slightly unusual in that it occupies a parcel of land between a business park and residential development, and also adjacent to a listed former aircraft hangar that has been converted into a fitness centre.
The surrounding buildings are all a contemporary design with flat roofs and a varied material palette. The care home needed to be designed to sit comfortably within this context of a large scale-built form with clean precise lines. Despite its size, the internal layout was designed so that individual communities could be accommodated, with each floor level enjoying a stand-alone suite of bedrooms and communal areas.
The design uses a simple palette of materials with buff brickwork, white render and horizontal cladding, within an exposed steel frame that echoes the former aircraft hanger and surrounding commercial buildings. Large areas of glazing feature to the staircases at the end of each wing which work as orientation points within the home.
