Haverhill

Client: Country Court
Landscape and Ecology Designer: FPCR Environment and Design Ltd
Arboriculturist: Oakfield Arboricultural Services
Stage: Planning

This new build 64-bedroom care home is situated on the site of a former hotel on the outskirts of Haverhill, West Suffolk. The site is partially wooded and was indeed formerly known as the Woodlands Hotel. The new design works with the topography, site shape and constraints by threading a series of stepped accommodation blocks up through the existing trees.

The building offers flexibility with each block sized around the optimal number of rooms to suit a very wide range of care requirements and operational modes. Residents always have a view into the surrounding wooded areas and are within easy reach of day lounges and activity / functional spaces. There are also heavily planted rooftop gardens which allow secure external spaces for residents to enjoy which alsohaving and provide great views out over the tree canopies to the countryside beyond.

The façade design itself draws heavily from nature with subtly different combinations and layering of natural timber cladding which correspond to the changing organic growth densities of the surrounding land. This helped give the design a distinctive and playful texture using simple, inexpensive cladding materials.