As part of the Stoke-on-Trent retirement village initiative, which was led by Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Willow Barns in Blurton, won the “HAPPI Completed” award in the Housing Design Awards this week run by Design for Homes, an independent not for profit organisation.
Willow Barns was the first of three sites delivered as part of a PFI extra care housing project for the over 55’s. The total three sites have delivered 390 new apartments.
The Manchester studio of PRP designed the three retirement villages, each with its own identity and each containing a wealth of communal facilities which will ensure that individually the developments become a vibrant hub serving older people in their respective neighbourhoods. Designed to incorporate the 10 HAPPI* principles each development is set within extensive landscaped gardens. Willow Barns is the smallest of the three developments, providing 75 new, aspirational homes and completed in July 2016.
Graham Locke, Director at PRP, commented:
“We are delighted Willow Barns has been recognised with a Housing Design Award in the prestigious HAPPI category. The scheme is the culmination of the ambition and vision of both the client and project team to create a scheme of exemplary quality with sensitive, innovative design which sets a precedent for aspirational housing for the over 55’s.”
Sarah Houghton-Grimshaw, Retirement Living Services Manager for Your Housing Group which operates Willow Barns, said: “We’ve always known that Willow Barns is a wonderful, high-quality place to live and these awards simply confirm this.
“It’s brilliant that the scheme has been recognised in this way. Our residents and visitors always remark on the open space, the way original barn buildings have been incorporated into a modern building, and the sense that it’s a genuinely special place to live.”
The scheme was developed by the Sapphire Consortium, a consortium appointed by Stoke-onTrent City Council. The consortium is a partnership between Your Housing Group, Eric Wright Group and Kajima Partnership Ltd which will run the villages over 25 years.
Willow Barns is managed by housing provider, Your Housing Group.
For more information visit www.sapphireconsortium.co.uk where fly-throughs of all three schemes can be viewed.
A case study, with data, of the Willow Barnes scheme entered for the awards can be found here http://hdawards.org/scheme/willow-barns/.
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