Silverhood

Women In Property South West Awards winner, the design of a co-housing complex for active elderly aged between 50-75 with 14 housing units that could be up to 3 bedrooms and accessible. As a scheme that intends to explore a solution to the social barrier in Spring Wharf, Bath, the concept’s main idea is serving as a transcendence between the public and private spaces and ensuring they are communicated as properly to avoid confusion.

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.