Thoughtful new homes connect disadvantaged people with their town
Design Engine for the Enham Trust
Location: Andover, Hampshire
Too often, disabled and disadvantaged people are housed ‘out of sight, out of mind’. Not so at Bradbury Place, which provides secure wheelchair-accessible apartments close to the town centre of Andover.
At the heart of this project lies the ambition of local charity the Enham Trust. The trust helps people with disability previously needing 24-hour care through a transition programme towards greater independence. This gives them greater confidence to live their own lives, with reduced reliance on others.
Enham Trust identified this site as one which, when developed, would bring its tenants physically and socially closer to Andover and thus offer them better access to shops and services, present greater opportunity for them to find suitable work and therefore achieve greater self-reliance. It also recognised the benefits of bringing the public closer to the issue of living with disability, thus offering them an insight and connection with life issues unlike their own.
A significant challenge of the project was to organise the development so that safe, secure, well-lit and compliant disabled access could be made to the new dwellings and at the same time to afford a new route through the site that would be to the benefit of the wider community. Two accommodation ‘blocks’ span this Public Right of Way to physically connect common areas and improve resident interaction, enabling all apartments to be serviced from a single lift.
Since completion of the project, Test Valley Borough Council’s Portfolio Holder for Planning and Transport, Councillor Martin Hatley, said: 'Working in partnership with Enham Trust and Design Engine has resulted in an outstanding design, which contributes positively towards providing high quality and truly life changing accommodation for residents.'