Located at Ennersdale Road, Spring Gardens is a new concept in homeless provision, offering various types of accommodation for 115 residents.
The dwellings are located in buildings arranged around a beautiful garden with existing mature trees. A two-story linear building along the eastern garden edge has reception areas, double-height arcaded day rooms, and training areas with views into the garden, together with 40 en-suite rooms each with its own south facing courtyard.
A C-shaped building, which forms the other three sides of the garden, provides 21 studio flats for residents who are encouraged by staff to progress towards independent living. A further 54 rooms are located in the existing Garden House. Two thirds of the rooms down the long central wing are equipped with their own fridge and bathroom, and leads onto a pocket-handkerchief garden at the back. The scheme has a light, open and airy feel, with a later phase being developed in a series of ‘Garden Pavilions’ that provide additional training areas.
The design of the building comprises a central wing that extends along the entire western edge of the site and two side wings that project forward at either end. The southern one poking out a little further than its opposite number and at its end point, doubles in height resulting in a four-story tower that lies square on the main approach axis, providing a termination to the view. Though the building’s section varies, the 5m high circulation space that provides access to all rooms except those in the tower remains a constant.
The circulation space addresses the garden through a wall of full-height glazing that allows staff to monitor the building’s communal areas and serve as both a circulation area and as the site of exercise groups, film presentations, quiz nights and life-training classes. Featuring a syncopated arrangement of pendant lights and multi-colored benches, the south wing houses a dining area, IT facilities and a small library.
Originally occupied by a hostel for émigré Irish workers, the building was replaced by a custom designed homeless shelter with a low-lying structure, comprising a series of dormitories configured around internal courtyards in the early 1970s. A recently established department of communities and local government initiative called Places of Change, initiated plans for redevelopment with an aim to shift the culture of homeless care away from one of maintenance to one of recovery by providing facilities that will enable residents to re-establish independent lives.
