The concrete frame has been completed for St. John's primary school located in Ealing, London. Gibberd has been appointed as executive architect by Rydon Construction Ltd to deliver the new build St. John's Primary school as part of the ongoing regeneration of the Green Man Lane Estate in West Ealing. Work will now quickly progress to install the external walls and complete the roof, the school is scheduled to be opened ready for the next educational year. 

The new building will allow the current school to increase in size and capacity with contemporary facilities and modern, engaging educational spaces. The new three form school will provide high quality teaching spaces, which optimises natural ventilation, daylighting and acoustics. The sports hall and canteen will provide community uses, while the rooftop play area will allow children to interact in a unique environment.

To mark Dementia Awareness Week 2016 Gibberd Architects take a look at the recently completed project The Orangery in Bexhill-On-Sea with a focus on Design for Dementia.

In 2015 there were 850,000 people with dementia in the UK, this figure is estimated to rise to over 1 million by 2025 creating environments which are suitable for our aging population and an increasing number of people suffering with dementia is becoming a major design consideration across many design sectors from healthcare, to housing and community facilities.

Gibberd Architects have a portfolio of experience in healthcare and have demonstrated their design skill in this specialist area of design for dementia through a number of projects including the Older Persons unit at Callington Road for Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust and Regis Gate Extra Care Scheme in Sittingbourne for AmicusHorizon. We also celebrate the recently completed Extra Care Scheme The Orangery in Bexhill-On-Sea for AmicusHorizon which Gibberd were appointed as Executive Architects and Interior Designers. Extra Care is a unique building model developed to meet the acute housing and care needs of older people. Extra Care  housing has been demonstrated to provide cost benefit to the NHS and other healthcare commissioners as generally residents in Extra Care schemes have fewer trips and falls, lower levels of hospital admissions and when hospital stays are required these are usually shorter. All these elements contribute to improve the health and wellbeing of the residents of these schemes which is of immeasurable value to quality of life as we age.

Key considerations in design for dementia care are building legibility through simple design and effective signposting. Gibberd worked closely with a number of stakeholders and a local resident’s reference group to develop the design, material finishes and furniture at The Orangery to achieve a legible and comfortable space which assists wayfinding and orientation within the building. Colour and contrast, lighting, signposting and both internal and external communal areas play important roles in the well being of patients with dementia.

At The Orangery we have used colour to signpost key areas of the building, feature colours denote the circulation cores within different areas of the building to aid orientation and the use of contrasting colours to flat entrance doors and integrated memory shelves outside each flat so that residents can further personalise their flat entrance to aid familiarity and recognition. Floor finishes were carefully considered to minimise contrast between different floor finishes which to users with dementia may have appeared as a change in level which could cause hesitate and unsteadiness. Whilst minimising contrast of floor finishes is believed to be beneficial; contrast between walls, doors and junctions with the floor is vital for those with poorer sight to be able to understand and engage fully with the environment around them. 

Works have begun on site for the conversion of the 17th Century Langley Park House from Palladian Manor to 5* Luxury Hotel.

Designed by influential British architect Stiff Leadbetter the existing buildings comprise Langley Park House, an important Palladian manor house, together with an independent Brewhouse building, both of which date largely from the 17th Century. Having been vacant for over a decade since being occupied by British Plasterboard the approved conversion will provide 5* hotel accommodation comprising 17 en-suite bedrooms together with an additional twenty-one bedrooms in the nearby clockhouse. The development also includes a major subterranean extension to provide a luxury spa and swimming pool facility, set entirely beneath an existing car park. The development also comprises a small new build extension to the grade II listed Brewhouse and the refurbishment and reconfiguration of an existing Winter Garden to provide a grand function space for use by the hotel. 

The Extra Care scheme has been listed by Judges as a finalist for The Planning and Placemaking Awards in two categories: ‘Regional- Southern England’ and ‘Award for placemaking using public sector-owned land and property’.

The Orangery is due to open in April 2016 and will provide 58 high quality apartments for older people with a range of needs. 

Gibberd have worked closely with Rydon and AmciusHorizon, together with a number of stakeholders to deliver this scheme which in addition to providing state of the art apartments will offer on-site communal facilities including restaurant, activity room, hairdressing salon, well being room and residential lounge and is set within communal landscaped gardens.

Winners of the Planning and Placemaking Awards will be announced at a ceremony at London’s Savoy Place 29 June 2016.

Ceres Court has been submitted to Swale Borough Council for full planning approval. The new build scheme designed by Frederick Gibberd Partnership for AmicusHorizon will provide 40 new homes, which are a range of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom houses and are a mix of affordable rent and shared ownership tenure. The scheme involves the demolition of three residential low grade blocks which providing predominately single person dwellings. Frederick Gibberd Partnerships design proposal will see the provision of family housing which is in keeping with the identified housing needs of the area. The scheme rationalises the existing external spaces, providing secure boundaries, clear separation between public and private space and has been designed to give strong natural surveillance to the MUGA and a new central landscaped zone which will address existing social issues identified with the current arrangement. 

Gibberd have been granted permission by Westminster County Council for the erection of a single story roof extension to an apartment block on Prince Albert Road, West London.

31 Prince Albert Road, located to the north of Regents Park and on the western corner of Primrose Hill, is a 1960’s purpose built apartment block with seven storeys of residential accommodation and an eighth floor plant room.

The approved Gibberd proposal seeks to sympathetically extend the 8th floor by demolishing sections of the existing brick plant enclosure and erecting a light weight glazed structure, in doing so providing additional 102m² of living space. The design also connects the 7th and 8th floors to create a generous maisonette with extensive views across both parks.

The proposed extension comprises a combination of opaque and see through glass panels set within a white framed structure symmetrical to the block below, resulting in a far more visually composed appearance than that of the present asymmetrical plant room. Furthermore the glass gives a light weight appearance which blends in subtly with the sky, compared to the existing dark brickwork from which the plant room is constructed.