Overview
Building upon Cura Terrae’s growing portfolio of extra care schemes, our Landscape Architecture team successfully delivered the Landscape Design for an extra care facility in Telford. The vibrant external spaces provide a valuable recreational resource, offering an important connection to nature that can be enjoyed by residents and staff.
Designing outdoor spaces for extra care living facilities poses unique challenges but our team was able to maximise the benefits of existing features, incorporating them into the design. Knowing the importance of landscape architecture to cognitive and emotional wellbeing, our team facilitated access to green spaces and space for activities within the design to enhance the wellbeing of residents.
Client
Our client, Preferred Homes, works with local authorities and Homes England to provide affordable homes for older people with care needs. Preferred Homes develops, owns, and manages affordable extra care housing. As a registered provider of social housing, it builds rented homes for older people who cannot access suitable housing from the private market.
Its ambition is to increase the availability and quality of senior housing provision across England, helping under-pressure local authorities, and making sure people can live well into their later years, regardless of their financial means.
The project comprises a 72-apartment facility, designed by BMJ Architects, with a car park, community café, and generous outdoor spaces including a roof terrace.
Challenge
Any design for an extra care facility must take into consideration dementia friendly design principles. Designing outdoor spaces that support cognitive health and accessibility for older adults, especially those with cognitive decline, comes with several key challenges. Dementia friendly design principles prioritise safety, navigation, and comfort by using clear pathways, high-contrast colours, and good lighting, while also creating a homely, familiar environment that supports independence and meaningful engagement.
Balancing safety with accessibility is a primary concern. Residents must be protected but retain as much autonomy as possible. So, gardens must be secure to prevent escapes yet open and inviting. For example, hedges and soft barriers can offer a more relaxed feel than high fences.
In terms of surface design and navigation, paths need to be wide, level, non-slip, and clearly defined, avoiding abrupt changes in grade or confusing textures. Loops are preferable to dead ends to reduce disorientation.
For cognitive and sensory limitations, simplifying landscapes is important: People with dementia benefit from simple, clear visual layouts. Overly elaborate gardens can be confusing or overwhelming. When looking at multisensory stimuli, integrating aromatic, colourful, and tactile elements such as herbs, fragrant blossoms, and diverse textures gently engage the senses.
Solution
Our proposed design
We proposed a design for the facility with associated open space, car park, and cycle provision. The arrangement of the building into an “T” shape follows the principles of biophilic design and the HAPPI (Housing our Ageing Population: Panel for Innovation) guide to create a sheltered, south facing courtyard. This enables residents to explore outdoors with most apartments benefitting from an attractive view to the space.
This strong connection to the outdoor environment is further reinforced through the provision of a roof terrace which receives sunlight throughout the day, providing an elevated open space with a different view for residents.
Biophilic design, the integration of nature with the built environment, is proven to support mental well-being. The indoor/outdoor relationship enables users to enjoy views out of the building during periods of inclement weather or during times of infirm health, whilst providing ease of access during the warmer months when they can enjoy relaxation and socialising outdoors.
This connection is further realised by a number of the ground floor apartments benefitting from private patio areas to create valuable defensible space and opportunities for a greater sense of independence, where residents can personalise the space with light gardening.
How we designed with access to nature in mind
We recognise that access to nature is an important aspect for the safeguarding of our mental well-being. Being able to observe the change of seasons and enjoy the different flora and fauna that brings is an important part of our connection with nature and significantly benefits our physical and mental health.
The central courtyard at Telford has been designed as an extension of the communal internal spaces, such as the community café, to offer attractive views from the interior spaces and encourage people to spill out into the garden. This is augmented through the careful selection of planting to create the green infrastructure necessary to provide shelter, create a sense of scale and identity, define spaces, boost biodiversity and give year-round interest.
Sensory planting within the central courtyard has been designed to engage residents and help contribute to feelings of reduced anxiety, less agitation and evoke memories to create a calming effect. The colour, texture, sound, and smell of the planting will also help attract birds and insects into the garden to boost biodiversity and contribute to a greater sense of well-being.
An area of green roof consisting of wildflower meadow has been provided on the roof terrace to boost biodiversity whilst further strengthening the development’s resilience to climate change. Linear planters define the edges of the terrace to bring shelter, colour, and texture to the space. Views to the adjacent recreation ground extend the site’s connection to nature and anchor the site to its context.
The pathways have been designed to prioritise safety, navigation and comfort by creating clear legible routes in durable surfacing with good lighting. The continuous path arrangement supports independence to enable residents to wander safely in a loop, following Dementia friendly design principles and encouraging light exercise.
The materials proposed for surfacing were carefully selected to ensure they are durable, trip free with adequate slip resistance and free from glare. We have worked alongside the engineers to integrate sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDs), with the car park benefitting from permeable block paving, helping to improve the development’s resilience to climate change.
Picnic tables and seating have been provided within the central courtyard to encourage residents, staff, and visitors to relax and socialise. The provision of arbours with climbing shrubs creates dappled shade for sitting underneath to extend the period of use of the garden and allow for quiet contemplation.
A pétanque area and raised planters on the roof terrace encourage an active lifestyle where residents can socialise and enjoy light gardening. These activities offer resident’s visitors a further means and space in which to connect with their loved ones. Picnic tables allow for outdoor dining, crafting and board games.
Client benefits
- Expected to achieve a BREEAM “Very good” rating
- Biophilic design with access to nature being a key consideration
- A number of personalisable outdoor spaces for residents’ sense of independence and wellbeing
- Maximised recreational value of the space
Client testimonial
Affordable Extra Care accommodation is a home for life for our residents who have varying degrees of care needs. Our garden area is just as important to our tenants as the internal environment. We have found Jenny Sweet and her team at Cura-Terrae very professional – they have delivered a garden area on budget, on time and very well thought out. I’d be more than happy to recommend them to others as a trusted partner of Preferred Homes.
Richard Frank Property Director, Preferred Homes
