PMJ Masonry are proud to announce that the Meadow View Care Centre Project in Darley Dale has won the RIBA East Midlands Award 2017 at the RIBA Ceremony in May 2017.
This is one of two care centres that PMJ Masonry have been working on with Balfour Beatty Construction for Derbyshire County Council. The developments will provide residential and day care activities which promote health and well-being for the elderly, specifically, those with dementia, as well as community facilities.
Both centres will incorporate the latest sustainability features including a storm water attenuation system, rainwater harvesting, air source heat pumps and eco–cell passenger lifts. The centre at Darley Dale will have a green roof with sedum matting, carefully designed to provide attractive habitats for wildlife.
The £8 million Meadow View Care Centre was externally cladded with natural stone sourced locally by PMJ Masonry. This project consisted of Ashlar Sandstone walling with long runs of facia/soffit and capping features.
RIBA stated:
The design seeks to maximise its aspect from a west-facing hillside, and is arranged as a series of terraced wings stepping up the site. Each wing contains a cluster of eight specialist bedrooms, each with their own terrace and living areas. The entrance is at the mid-level, with a direct connection to the adjacent Whitworth Hospital. The ‘public’ areas occupy the centre of the complex, with zones increasing in privacy as you move towards the extremities. As soon as you arrive in the spacious foyer you are welcomed with a superb view across the valley; the immediate impression is of daylight and airiness, a sense which is continues throughout the centre, where corridors end with glazed doors giving onto multi-level balconies.
A central circulation route links the four floor levels as it climbs up the hillside, and is signalled outside (and sometimes inside) by a distinctive local Derbyshire drystone wall. The same stone is used in sawn form for the neat roof and coping details, creating a unity both within the building and externally with its surroundings, despite its very contemporary scale and form. The roofs are flat and planted, both to open up views from the rear of the site, and in some measure, to replace the meadow which the building now occupies.
It is clear that residents, staff and visitors greatly enjoy the building and its relationship to the surrounding countryside. Meadow View surely sets a new standard for dementia care.