Connecting a care home with nature

At Land Studio, our vision is to connect people with nature through immersive environmental design.

So when we were asked to work on the landscaping for an extension to a care home in North Wales, it was the perfect opportunity for us to integrate the new building with the rural character of its setting.

Marleyfield Care Home in Buckley sits on a sloping site with views across agricultural fields and to the Clywdian range.

We worked on the project alongside Chester’s Lovelock Mitchell Architects and Willmott Dixon, the UK’s leading independent construction and property services company.

The architects designed a curving two-storey building with rooms and balconies for residents to enjoy the view. Our vision was to naturally bring in, and connect, the rural character of the area with the infrastructure of the site.

We used lots of techniques to do this.

The car park was set lower down so that the ground around it could be raised up. It means that when you are on the ground floor of the home, the car park is below your eyeline.

We created semi-private patio areas and communal terraced garden spaces for residents to enjoy, with horticultural zones and views which naturally take the eyes out across the wider landscape.

We used aromatic and colourful planting in the horticultural zones and planted meadow grass and meadow flowers in the wider landscape along with hedges and trees.

We carefully considered dementia friendly and sensory garden design, created rich and colourful areas to make it easy for residents to find their way around, and integrated subtle but secure boundaries in the garden.

To consider the special needs of people with disabilities and those in wheelchairs, gently sloping paths were installed to create easy access to areas with challenging level changes.

New seating areas and covered area were also installed to encourage use and exploration.

Marleyfield Care Home is an example of taking a care home to the next level and giving all residents the opportunity of lovely and inspiring views while they live out their later years.