The Tooley & Foster Partnership win Pinders Healthcare Design Award for Anjulita Court in Bedford

The Tooley & Foster Partnership are delighted to announce that we have won a Pinders Healthcare Design Award for Anjulita Court, a unique Care Home with Nursing and Dementia, in Bedford, for MHA in association with The Ibbett Trust.

The design avoids any institutional or pre-conceptual imagery associated with a Care Home, instead adopting a more informed style providing an iconic landmark which is welcoming to the community.

This innovative project set out as a flagship for Care Homes in Bedfordshire to deliver Care in a quality environment.

On completion, the registration and inspection team were overawed by the quality of the accommodation and the impressive Entrance Hall which transcends and avoids any reference to the traditional institutional Care Home appearance.

The Pinders’ judges said of the Home “Anjulita Court presents an obviously impressive external appearance, incorporating innovative structural elements with an attractive pallet of materials and colours, but the attention to detail internally is of an even higher standard. The imaginative layout serves to flood all areas with natural light and provides excellent choices of communal space for residents to enjoy individually or together. The architects’ brief was to put aside the usual Care Home themes and they have successfully created something both visually striking and sympathetic to the needs of its residents.”

One such resident, Arthur Martin, who attended the Pinders Awards lunch with us, agreed with the judges, saying “Anjulita Court is really spacious with a lovely large main entrance hall. You can be as private or as sociable as you want here. There is no other old folks’ home quite like it. My wife and I are fortunate to live here together in a large bedroom so we can entertain within our own room or in the lounge or sun lounge. We’re looking forward to the summer so we can enjoy the beautiful gardens and surrounding areas. We’re so at home here that we’ve almost forgotten where we used to live.” Arthur’s account of living at Anjulita Court is testimony to the fact that The Tooley & Foster Partnership really do create ‘Environments that work’.

The contractors of Anjulita Court, SDC Builders Ltd, are currently building Extra Care accommodation as a separate block adjacent to the new Care Home, to provide larger accommodation in the form of 1 and 2 bed self contained apartments for older people who may be in need of Care but who are able to enjoy a more independent lifestyle. The design of the new block has the same architectural language and is designed to complement the very strong and distinctive style of Anjulita Court. It does not detract from it, but forms an equally important element of a whole design. We hope to see it win a Pinders Award in 2011!