ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
A ‘home from home’ for children with disabilities
Fleet Architects’ director, Jaime Bishop, and associate architect, Kai Xin Tan, explain how the practice has ‘reimagined respite care’ for young people with disabilities in Northampton, producing a unified design concept for the short breaks service at the John Greenwood Shipman Centre in Northampton on behalf of Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
The run-down John Greenwood Shipman Centre facility has potential, but requires safety improvements, increased opportunities for interaction between the children, and a more cosy, less institutional feel. We at Fleet brought our expertise in retrofitting healthcare settings with a proposal that was playful, harmonious, and allowed for the expression of each resident’s individuality. Fleet Architects has long advocated the repurposing and reimagining of buildings in order to preserve existing structures, promote sustainability, and minimise construction waste. Our work on Health on the High Street – which sees the re-location of outpatients and community services to disused shops and other public buildings in accessible town centre locations – has brought us many plaudits, including being shortlisted for the prestigious Wolfson Economics Prize in 2021. Fleet has been working with Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) on a variety of projects, retrofitting and refurbishing existing healthcare estate such as the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services unit and Section 136 Place of Safety facility at Berrywood Hospital in Northampton, and a mental health inpatient facility at the Welland Centre, which is part of St Mary’s Hospital, Kettering.
New guidance on reaching Net Zero emissions The Northamptonshire Trust is ahead of the curve. In February this year the NHS published new guidance on reaching Net Zero emissions from its buildings by 2045. From 1 October 2023, the NHS Net Zero Building Standard will apply to all future building works and upgrades requiring sign-off for funding. NHFT approached Fleet Architects in March 2022 to produce a design concept for a part of its estate that had become shabby and run down. The John Greenwood Shipman Centre is a respite care service for children and young people with mental and physical disabilities, including autism, complex health needs, and/or complex behaviour. Situated in a residential area of Northampton, the centre offers a
THE NETWORK | MAY 2023
A concept sketch illustrating the site’s opportunities.
short-break service for children within a structured and safe environment, giving families respite from the physical and emotional demands of caring for a child with a disability, and offering a chance for the children to engage in activities and socialise with their peers. The centre has a small adjoining facility called Woodside, which is for children and young people with learning disabilities and/or ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) presenting in crisis. The facility sits across the local authority children’s services as commissioners, and the NHS Trust as service-provider. Fleet’s proposed concept design is part of the NHFT project plan to access funding and move forward with the works.
The project team
l Client: Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
l Architects: Fleet Architects (Jaime Bishop, Kai Xin Tan, Richard Henson, and Maees Hadi).
l Quantity surveyor: DMR Consultancy. l Structural engineer: QED Structures.
The setting Working in close consultation with the centre’s service manager, Marie James, Fleet has developed a scheme that works for both staff and children, taking account of the different uses of the spaces within the building. Over 50 children and young people use John Greenwood Shipman’s services and facilities throughout the year. Lakeside, the area of the centre that offers respite care, accommodates eight children at a time aged 0-18 years. The rooms are all on one level. Users arrive after school from 3 pm, and are free to move about the setting until bedtime at approximately 10 pm. The bedrooms, clustered together in groups of two, two, and four, much as they would be in a typical home, give the children a quiet place to retreat to, although in the current configuration they are part of a long corridor that connects to the dining room and lounge. Service manager, Marie James, told us: “The main areas are divided into many separate small rooms, which results in the unit feeling confined, and the light distribution being poor. Higher staffing levels are required to ensure that all areas of the building are supervised due to the number of blind spots.”
29
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
