5 December 2020 – Plans submitted for Downlands Park

Plans have been submitted by Architects Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt for Downlands Park in West Sussex, a Victorian care home which will be redeveloped into a ‘campus for later living’ for Eden Retirement Living.

The original Victorian villa was built in 1876 and later converted into a school during the 1900s before becoming a care home in the 1980s.

No longer fit for purpose, the villa will be demolished to make way for a new campus of dwellings for later living with additional community support facilities.

This £19 million redevelopment in Haywards Heath will comprise of 15 cottages and 70 apartments, each with access to additional care support.  Ubu provided the landscape design for this development which is located on a six-acre site with the dwellings arranged to maintain the open parkland setting and enhanced with a number of cascading planted terraces.

The proposals include a community hub building with pool, spa, fitness suite and wellbeing rooms which will be accessible to residents as well as providing age exclusive memberships for local residents in the wider community.