The ARBD project involved the design of a specialist residential care development on a brownfield site in the north of Thornlibank, providing eight self-contained supported living flats together with an eight-bedroom care home. The client's brief required the entire development to be arranged on a single storey, creating a welcoming, fully accessible environment that would promote independence while maintaining a comfortable, domestic scale for residents.

The principal design challenge was accommodating the extensive accommodation within a single-storey footprint without creating the appearance of a large institutional building. Our architectural response was to divide the development into three distinct volumes, each articulated with its own roof form to break down the overall mass and create a composition that reflects the scale of surrounding residential development. The contemporary roofscape gives the building a strong architectural identity while softening its visual impact and reinforcing the feeling of a collection of smaller buildings rather than a single large facility.

Creating bright, uplifting internal spaces was central to the design. Large areas of glazing, projecting bay windows and carefully positioned openings maximise natural daylight throughout the accommodation while providing strong visual connections with the surrounding landscaped gardens. The use of generous windows and a predominantly flat roof profile helps establish a calm, open environment, avoiding institutional characteristics and instead creating a warm, domestic atmosphere that supports residents' wellbeing.

A contemporary palette of render and fibre cement cladding introduces texture, contrast and rhythm across the elevations, further emphasising the individual building forms. The result is a carefully considered care development that successfully balances functional requirements with high-quality architecture, creating a welcoming and accessible environment that feels both contemporary and residential in character.