Gaunt Francis Architects has been a leading voice in design for retirement care communities since 2005, together with long-term client Audley Villages. We were proud therefore to be trusted with this scheme in 2017, when Audley Group launched their idea for a new Care Community concept, to be developed by their sister company Mayfield Villages.

The Mayfield Watford scheme has been carefully designed to fit in with the wider Watford Riverwell masterplan Located to the south-west of Watford City Centre.

Video with the kind permission of Balfour Beatty Construction & Jan Letocha

The new Mayfield Care Community will provide a place that supports older people but is also a working part of Watford. The concept is based on the idea of older adults (55 years or over) living comfortable, fulfilling, and independent lives with the flexibility to add as much, or as little, care and support as needed.

This project demonstrates how important a clear concept is to a good design. The project brief required many apartments, but the site is quite compact. So, we created a deceptively simple layout with an access road through the middle aligned with existing services, contrasting with a private garden space that is south facing. The building height steps up and down to match the context and to create accessible roof terraces for residents.

The generous communal spaces fill the ground floor of the southern block, and include a village hall, health club, swimming pool, gym, treatment rooms, restaurant-bar, and lounge, as well as extensive landscaped and external amenity spaces.

The project is nearing completion on site.

The video below was produced by Visualisation One for Mayfield Villages.