A hospice project designed by the award-winning Newcastle architectural practice JDDK Architecture has won a prestigious LABC Building Excellence Award as the Best Inclusive Building at the Grand Final Awards that were held recently in London.
A panel of industry experts judged a list of the highest quality projects from around England and Wales to reward the best in technical innovation, sustainability and design. This includead grade I listed Thorpe Hall, a project designed by JDDK. Rescued from dereliction by Lady Sue Ryder in 1986, it has since been a hospice at the heart of Peterborough’s community.
The £6m refurbishment of the Sue Ryder Hospice at Thorpe Hall required the JDDK team to engage in extensive discussions with English Heritage and Peterborough City Council in 2010 which led to the successful planning application of 2011. The design proposals recommended a single storey timber framed structure containing 20 ground floor rooms with en-suite facilities, as well as large individual patio doors allowing patients’ beds to be easily wheeled out into the landscaped gardens, a feature that particularly impressed the judges.
