Silverhood

University of the West of England, Faculty of the Built Environment, Frenchay Campus, Bristol

Project idea

THE DESIGN OF A CO-HOUSING COMPLEX FOR ACTIVE ELDERLY AGED BETWEEN 50-75 WITH 14 HOUSING UNITS THAT ARE ACCESSIBLE. IN ADDITION TO THAT, CLIENT SPECIFICATION IN CREATING DESIGNATED SPACES OF ACTIVITIES FOR THE COMMUNITY HUB. BASED ON THE CHARTS AND SITE ANALYSIS ANALYSIS, THE CLIENT ARE FEMALES AS THEY PRESENT THE MAJORITY, UNDER-OCCUPYING HOUSES AND ARE LONELY PEOPLE THAT ARE ACTIVE TO AN EXTENT.
The scheme focuses on several points:
- Aging Society: The research focuses on trying to establish a transcendence between the active-agers and the rest of the different age groups.
- Safety: Front is public, back is private, controlled with barriers and materials to create thresholds (Semi-Private)
- Well-being: One of the most important aspects of looking at under occupancy within houses is ensuring that the person's new home is one that is occupied and used to its fullest potential.
- Flexibility: Designed to acccjmiiodate people with different levels of social interaction and can also be changed internally to accommodate the different needs of the users occupying them.
- Heritage: Live up to the heritage's traditions, the facade of the building is mostly bath stone balanced out with steel balconies and timber screens and doors.
- Sustainability: Respecting is also sustainable by sourcing local and recycled materials from the area concrete planters filter down water to greywater systems. And solar panels to generate electricity.

Project description

The proposal initially is a design that tries to blend in terms of its shape, materials, height and concept. It is a building that is easy to navigate around for the elderly. Made of two separate buildings, there are two bridges at two levels that connect both buildings together. The block at the front, has one level less (instead, it is a roof garden), to allow more light to the internal courtyard of the complex. The front block consists of two closed levels; the ground level is mainly the Hobhouse divided into the library and the main active zone. The first floor has a couple of the two bedroom apartments. The second floor is the roof garden for the occupants’ use only. The Bassi House consists mainly of the one bedroom apartments, laid out on three levels. The reason why there aren’t many bedrooms in these apartments is to avoid the occupants under-occupying the spaces. By bringing nature and allowing for open
ventilated walkways helps with the elderly connection with nature and improve their mental being as well as help make fire escape
easier. Although there aren’t many views except for the river, with the use of nature, there are designated spaces with views out.

Technical information

1 SETTING PILE FOUNDATIONS
2 POURING THE CONCRETE TO MAKE SLABS
3 STEEL COLUMNS FILLED WITH INSULATION AND POSI JOISTS AS CEILINGS
4 SETTING A HOLLOW SLAB AT THE ROOF TO HOLD THE WEIGHT OF THE GARDEN
5 THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE TWO STEEL BRIDGES THAT SPAN FROM BLOCK TO BLOCK
6 INSTALLATION OF STONE CLADDING COLUMNS AND BEAM HANGERS FOR THE CLADDING TO SIT ON
7 BATH STONE THAT IS HUNG ON THE STEEL BEAMS
8 INSTALLATION OF THE VERTICAL TIMBER SCREENS
(additional details in the images)