ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
Left: A visualisation of Water Meadow View, a new £32 m inpatient facility for service-users with Learning Disabilities/Autism on which work has just started on site north-east of Preston.
Below: The central courtyard at Water Meadow View provides ‘a safe, calming, controlled, and private outdoor environment’.
were able to identify and capture the key spatial triggers that pre-empted LD ‘melt- down’, and design spaces/environments to counter this. A key driver in the design development was the understanding of the vast spectrum of acuity across LD service- users. No one size fits all, with every individual presenting unique characteristic and sensory triggers. As such, the design developed to create four five-bed living clusters, each with the potential to function independently, but covered by the same nursing team. This allowed the building to allow the service to nurse service-users of different acuity, age, gender, and condition, through one flexible and adaptive space. Multiple access routes also helped in this regard, and ultimately also built in future pandemic measures for isolation and restricting cross-infection risk.
LD-specific design innovations LD-specific design innovations employed on this project included: l Transition zones created/spatial sequencing based on stimuli.
l One-way/open circulation routes designed to aid wayfinding and avoid stressful interactions.
l Visual markers, managed vistas, and landmarks created to aid familiarisation and trigger recognition. Sense of place, e.g. the central village green concept.
l Café/social or forum space created to give incentives and motivation to come off ward/interact/develop social skills.
l Immersive therapy room, ‘de-stim’ spaces, and sensory rooms. Activity spaces created included ADL (activities for daily living), all to stimulate cognitive understanding and life skills.
l A biophilic design approach, i.e. with green lightwells, living walls, abundance of gardens, inside/outside threshold blurred, and reference to nature in the interior design/architecture.
l The use of technology to improve service-user interaction/communication, personalisation, and control of their environments/stimuli.
l Non-audible alarms/nurse calls to control acoustic overload.
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l Circadian lighting/tactile materials. l Ambiguous and passive architectural design and materials palette. A backdrop to the landscaping, blank canvas, and low visual clutter – including non-patterning brickwork and curved edges/intersections to soften impact.
Design approach The design approach for Aspen Wood was truly ‘person centred’, with lived experience/service-user voices informing all aspects of the design. A therapeutic environment for challenging service users with Learning Disabilities, the design also had to deliver on onerous Forensic and MSU building standards around safety and security. In terms of form/materials used at
Aspen Wood, these were intentionally ambiguous and muted, with minimal visual noise to suit LD criteria. The materials also had to be robust and anti- vandal to meet Forensic guidelines. The building form/geometry was then used to apportion space/views, promote either movement or pause, and reach out into the landscape. The entrance approach is intentionally oblique to remove the stress of approaching a large arrival zone. A large part of the therapeutic milieu
for LD patients is their connection with nature. By adopting a biophilic design approach, nature/green space permeate the interior spaces and give linkages to the surrounding landscape, both physically and visually. This ultimately drove the
architectural design, creating a building that has natural enclosures/natural de- escalation spaces. The design of the external landscape
environment responds to the organic form of the architecture, providing a series of adjacent smaller private enclosed ‘zen’ courtyards and gardens within a larger estate garden. The whole external environment is designed to connect the service-user with landscape and nature. Within the building there is a central external ‘heart space’ courtyard adjacent to the café, with space for outdoor dining. Interior design proposals driven by service-users/experts by experience helped give ownership and ensure that the spaces were appropriate/supportive from an LD stimulus perspective.
Sustainability The building achieved a BREAM ‘Excellent’ rating, with the environmental controls driven by LD-specific criteria and sensory triggers, such as heat, sound, smell, and touch. More efficient mechanical and electrical systems also meant energy/cost savings year on year in terms of running costs. Among the key MEP features included in the design are: l Localised air source cooling systems which offer high efficiencies and low energy consumption compared with centralised cooling plant.
l Roof-mounted photovoltaics. l Ventilation heat recovery through the implementation of high-efficiency heat exchangers or thermal wheels.
NOVEMBER 2024 | THE NETWORK
Courtesy of Gilling Dod Architects
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