Kingston Dementia Nursing Home

Location
Kingston-upon-Thames
Client
Willmott Dixon
Nuovo Health
Value
£9m
Completion
2018
Size
80 beds

Optimised designs for dementia accreditation

We were appointed to review an existing council design proposal and develop a smaller alternative approach that delivered the same number of bedrooms. Our client sought to create a high-quality living environment that maximises independence, privacy and the opportunity for social inclusion and enables the delivery of high-quality care, nursing and hospitality services.

Our proposals for the new Kingston Dementia Nursing Home comprise of a three storey building of 80 bedrooms with day and support services for residents and ancillary staff accommodation.

We worked with the University of Stirling Dementia Services Development Centre (DSDC), through a series of Design Reviews and Design Validation Workshops, to ensure the design addressed those features that are important for people with Dementia, mainly compensating for inter-related sensory and cognitive impairments, in order to achieve DSDC Gold Award.

We developed a ‘household’ model (5 households of 16 people) to increase resident interaction. The bedrooms are split into five autonomous units. This enables each section to cater for different categories of resident needs and helps to optimise staff numbers as well as creating a homely place to live. Each household is accessed via the shared social spaces that form the physical and social heart of the building. Equally every household has its own dedicated social and support areas for residents and staff.

The layout, through its use of open plan day spaces, maximises the usable areas available to residents. The kitchen,  laundry and plant room are located on the second floor and are easily accessible from the central core to the other floors.

The privacy hierarchy proposed is articulated well in both massing and plan arrangement; the centralised public core is spacious in plan and articulated in elevations as a distinct space. The distinctive design supports wayfinding and helps people with dementia to familiarise themselves with the building.

A revised entrance route creates a dedicated avenue to the main entrance as opposed to an off-street entrance. This new avenue is overlooked by both the resident bedrooms and communal facilities which helps to create a defensible and passively supervised approach. This can aid the sense of community, safety and security.

A formal planted approach as designed helps reinforce the entrance route and provides a strong visual cue as to help wayfinding.

The Stride Treglown proposal reduced the overall gross internal footprint by 20%.