ROYAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF BLIND PEOPLE’S (RNIB) REDHILL SITE, SURREY
meeting space for residents to host functions and gatherings, and the cottage is being extended into one of the RNIB shared houses.
Integrating the RNIB
In part because the RNIB were setting the agenda from the beginning of the develop- ment process, as Manoher puts it, “It's not necessarily a typical housing project.” He continues: “It was very much a case
of, okay, we want to create an integrated community here where residents, be they blind or partially sighted, or open market residents just buying a house, will live side by side.” As such, the RNIB and open market residents’ dwellings are not separated in terms of their location. The RNIB residents are instead spread across the site based on their needs, with the intention of allowing them to live as independently as possible, but with access to help from the hub as and when they need it.
The residents that are deemed more independent will live in the set of RNIB apartments, though they will still have help just a phone call away if necessary. Those who need more support will reside in the RNIB shared houses, which will have a regular member of staff on hand. The location of these dwellings on the site also represent the users’ needs – the further they are from the hub, the more independently they are deemed to be able to live. Those that need more support for example will be in closer proximity to the Tudor House building.
Level changes & zones Making things more challenging, these homes are spread across a steeply sloping site, with a 21 metre change in level from the north side to the south side – equivalent to around seven storeys. The design of all the homes and their placement responds directly to this steep topography. The homes are clustered into different areas from top to bottom. The development of these diverse zones, each with its own character, was partly driven by the idea that the development goes from the more populated town end on the western edge of the site, and the rural countryside in the east, which is reflected in the design of the buildings.
These zones were dictated somewhat by the topography, as Manoher explains: “We were very much looking for clues within how the site itself worked, in order to set out what these character areas should be,
ADF JUNE 2019
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