DEVELOPMENT: COMPLETED 2017 LOCATION: ASCOT
CLIENT: BEN MOTOR AND ALLIED TRADES BENEVOLENT FUND
Lynwood Care Centre, Ascot
Care Home
BEN’s 19 acre site in Ascot straddles the parish boundaries of Sunninghill and Sunningdale in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. The site was the home of BEN’s head office but primarily operated sheltered accommodation and Care home facilities in a disperse arrangement of Period and 1960s buildings that were either in need of extensive refurbishing or replacement.
The brief evolved working with the Client through many meetings with clear objectives and direction. A scheme quickly developed providing a 102 bed care home, 138 apartments, 10 cottages and a new head office for BEN. The design had to take account of existing cottages, ancient woodland, extensive dispersion of mature trees, but most importantly the need to retain all existing residents on site during the construction, achieved with a design capable of being phased to accommodate this, but also achieving a completed and fluid design upon completion.
The re-provision of a replacement care home at Lynwood were the main driver for the re-development of Lynwood, and BENs desire to build and operate a home that would be an exemplar of care home design and at the same time provide longevity to the charity moving forward. The design was developed with the Care director and her team, with the influence and direction taken from experience gained through visits taken to similar facilities in America and Australia through developing a flexible layout with generous space standards throughout.
The design is based on the ‘Greenhouse’ Principle of arranging small ‘households’ of residents having the kitchen and living rooms at their heart. These small domestic buildings assist smaller groups of residents to live together in more intimate environments, which are also interconnected to each other with walkways and a central communal village hall, to encourage resident mobility and exploration.
The ‘Households’ of 14 or 15 bedrooms can be registered independently and therefore accommodate different resident groups. Small private gardens on the ground floor are supplemented with semi-enclosed roof top gardens for residents on the first floor providing each ‘household’ with direct and level access to outside space encouraging all residents to enjoy activities in both summer and winter seasons.
The Care home is operated ‘separately’ from the Assisted living accommodation however it is physically linked and accessible via internal glazed walkways and atria, enabling all care home ‘residents’ to access the expansive communal facilities within the main reception building.
Facilities at the village are extensive, and can be enjoyed by all residents, families, visitors and the staff. Included within the Communal Hub is Prescotts’ Restaurant, street café, Multi-faith room, library, cinema, hairdressers, complimented by full health and wellbeing facilities, including large swimming pool, Gymnasium, Physiotherapy suite, Hydrotherapy pool, beauty and massage salon.
Residents of the care home can also share in the many activities within the atrium and the outside recreational spaces including bowls, snooker, chess, croquet, archery and gardening including allotments.
