Acorn Court Care Home forms a striking landmark structure within the masterplan of the redevelopment of the former Holmethorpe Sand Quarry.

Located between the bustling London / South Coast rail line and the newly developed housing, provided an opportunity for an exceptional care home to be created. The active frontage on both the southern and northern sides of the building stimulates resident's vitality and interests while the massing responds to the height and forms of neighbouring premises, whilst respecting the site's narrowness.

Completed in January 2008 and set over 4 storeys, Acorn Court contains 78 high specification bedrooms with a further 8 bedrooms exclusively designed for physically disabled located on the ground floor leading to a private landscaped garden which overlooks the 'village' green. Further landscaped gardens are provided for the comfort and enjoyment of the remaining residents of the care home.

The £4m scheme, offering dementia, nursing and residential care provides a very contemporary and striking design with a combination of timber cladding, brickwork and rendered walls stepping inwards and upwards. The northern façade features a double height glazed entrance, complete with glazed entrance canopy providing direct access to the private car park.

The successful outcome of breathing life into a redundant site could only be achieved through intelligent planning.

The new design scheme for House of Fraser, Hull site is completed and open for business.
The photos show the new design brand that is now been applied to further sites including Sutton Coalfield and Birkenhead, due to start on site in October 2007.

Click on the Interior Design section of the DWA website to see a small montage of how the Scheme looks.

Works are now completed on a 112 Bed Care Home set on four floors plus a basement at Harold / Herbert Road, Tottenham. The building covers a substantial part of the site and being set close to the street frontage at ground floor level leaves only a small internal courtyard as garden area.

As a consequence of the stepped nature of the building, at the upper floors a series of terraced roof gardens have been carefully designed. The building design is of a contemporary style and nature, using a combination of brickwork and render with UPVC windows and aluminium curtain walling, capped with curved roofs covered with single membrane roofing.

The building dominates the immediate area and will form Precious Homes' first venture into the main stream care sector.

The largest private architectural practice in Warrington, DWA Architects, has appointed a new 'high flying' recruit to join the constantly expanding team.

Andrew Lockyer has joined DWA and will be working on a range of residential, commercial, industrial, retail, healthcare and master planning projects.

With almost 20 years experience within private practices throughout the UK, including working on the £4.3 billion terminal 5 at Heathrow airport, Andrew will bring a wealth of architectural expertise to the practice.

Andrew says, "I am originally from Warrington and it's great to be back in my hometown working for one of the north's leading architectural practices. I will be working on a variety of developments over a diverse range of sectors which offers me a huge amount of scope to develop my role and experience."

DWA in Warrington is a regional office of national firm DWA Architects. The practice has worked on a number of developments within Warrington and the North West area including the Georgian style mews houses on Dial Street in the city centre.

Andy Cross, the Director at DWA Architects, Warrington , says, "We are delighted to welcome Andrew to the team. Our portfolio is rapidly expanding so Andrew will have plenty of interesting jobs to get stuck in to. The practice continues to grow and we are always on the look out for talented people to join us."

Established in 1988, with headquarters in York and offices in London as well as the Warrington office, DWA's extensive project portfolio comprises commercial, retail, industrial, residential, healthcare, community, leisure and recreation work throughout the UK.

Ashley Gardens Care Centre in Maidstone , the latest contemporary care home designed by DWA Architects for Life Style Care was registered recently.

The care centre caters for 89 residents, the majority of whom are frail elderly or those with age related dementia. There is also a self contained specialist ground floor unit for between 10 and 13 young physically disabled.

Other features of this development are; additional dayspace and hobby rooms to encourage resident interaction and stimulation complete with internet facilities, induction loops to dayspaces to assist those with hearing impairment, contrasting and bright paint colours to doors and woodwork to assist those with visual impairment. Energy saving and sustainability inclusions include solar water heating, storage of rainwater for irrigation purposes and highly efficient mechanical plant, fabric insulation measures such as a 'warm' roof and rendering of elevations which ensure a very low air permeability rating.

Local Authority planners required a distinctive building on the site, which is on a main route into the town and the contemporary appearance and materials selection developed from dialogue with them. It is fair to say that the building stands out in the locality and the reaction of drivers at the adjacent signalled junction is interesting to observe.

I am pleased to announce that in his role of looking after the day to day business affairs of the company, Matthew Lanfranchi has now been appointed as a Director of DWA Architects.

I am also pleased to announce that Andrew Farr has been appointed as an Associate of Ward Associates (Consulting) and both Mike Hay and Rob Needham have been appointed Associates of DWA Architects.

We have recently seen a surge of enquiries leading to a rewarding growth in our portfolio of client and projects, with an increase in our range of commercial projects and there are strong indications that these trends will continue. Therefore we are continuing to seek and engage top quality candidates.

DWA have taken on 6 new recruits in as many weeks, following a series of new commercial contract wins. We've got a varied portfolio that is expanding rapidly, which includes some very exciting projects throughout the UK .

The new recruits take staff numbers at our York practice to more than 60 and comprise 3 Architectural Technicians, a Structural Design Engineer and 2 placement students.

Two York men, Paul Scaife and Ralph Gurrey, join as Architectural Technician and Trainee Architectural Technician. Great Ayton based Daniel Birdsall completes the Technician trio and Leeds man Guy Morgan takes on a Structural Design Engineer's role.

Undergraduates Richard Bailey and Andrew Watson from Sheffield Hallam and Leeds Metropolitan Universities join the firm on a one year placement as Architectural Assistants.

We've got 2 more people joining our York and Warrington offices this month, and we are always on the lookout for talented, enthusiastic Architectural Graduates, recently qualified Architects, Architectural Technicians and Architectural Technologists to join the team.

Shortlisted: Best Elderly Care - Regeneration - The Close Nursing and Residential Home, Abingdon