Only one month to go until this year’s Pinders Awards. It will be good to mix again with colleagues in the care home sector and see what innovative care home designs have made the finals this year.

This takes us back to when we received a Pinders Award for ‘Best New Care Home - Elderly’ for Dukeminster Court, Dunstable. We won £500 for this award which we were able to donate to the Alzheimer's Society.

RDT Architects carried out the feasibility and planning stages for this 75 bedroom dementia care home which was part of a 1.25 acre mixed use regeneration Masterplan.

The purpose built home for Quantum Care accommodates a communal hub providing café/bistro, hair salon, shops and care support facilities. Each residential wing is sub-divided into household groups of 7 and 8 residents, providing the sense of ownership and varying levels of privacy and choice.

RDT Architects were retained as design advisors during the construction phase as well as being appointed by the main contractor ISG for detailed design services.

This project also won ‘Best Dementia Care Home’ in the Dementia Care Awards.

We are hoping to revisit this care home again very soon to see first hand how it is working for the staff and residents now, what elements of the design internally have made a positive difference and what, if anything, they would like to see changed in the design. We can then learn from this visit and put the comments into practice on future care homes.

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