Barchester Healthcare Announced as Finalist for Pinders Healthcare Design Awards

Barchester Healthcare, one of the UK’s largest care home providers, have made it  through to the final stages of the Pinders Healthcare Design Awards for the design of The Spires Care Home in Lichfield, which opened in 2018.

The prestigious Healthcare Design Awards, organised by Pinders, aim to promote and recognise the very best developments in all types of care-related property, whilst the Award categories seek to acknowledge the contribution made by home owners, designers and architects to the wellbeing and quality of life for those in their care. This week three judges from the awarding body, which included Mark Ellis of Pinders, Laurence Barton of Yorkare, and Cheten Chauan of RDT architects visited the home to meet with the team and the residents, and take a tour of the building.

As a prize for being a finalist the judges presented the Barchester team, made up of Mark Bennett, Director of Property Services, Andy Williams, Senior Property Manager, alongside General Manager of The Spires Fran Sharp and Senior Design Manager Holly Rance a cheque of £500 for their chosen charity, Barchester’s Charitable Foundation; a charity which provides grants to individuals and community groups to combat loneliness in the elderly throughout the UK. Ian Holme and Mike Irwin from Harris Irwin Architects also joined on the day.

Mark Bennett, Director of Property Services at Barchester Healthcare said: “We’re honoured to be named a finalist for this exciting award. The Spires Care Home is a design we are very proud of, and we believe the design supports the caring team at the home to deliver the best possible care for residents at the home.”

Built with residents, families and staff needs in mind, The Spires Care Home, located in Lichfield, Staffordshire, was constructed by McGoff Construction in collaboration with Harris Irwin Architects, who designed the home from scratch using a new bespoke, Barchester design model.

Features of the home important to residents were identified and incorporated into the design, informing the layout of the home, the design, the furnishings and luxury details in the lounges, the generously spacious corridors, the large, en-suite bedrooms, the communal and bookable private dining areas, as well as the wide, open garden spaces. The home was finished to an extremely high specification with luxury fittings and furnishings, including an in-house hair salon, bistro area, dining room, activity room, quiet lounge, TV lounge, and include flat screen televisions in each of the en-suite bedrooms, and high speed Wi-Fi available in all parts of the home. The home had to be accessible to all, fit for purpose to a high-quality speck, and be visually appealing.

Aptly named after the three spires on Lichfield’s famous Cathedral, The Spires, provides high-quality residential and dementia care for older people in the Staffordshire community.

The team at The Spires, led by General Manager Fran Sharp, will be cheering the Barchester Property Team on at The Pinders Healthcare Design Awards ceremony, which will be held at The Royal Lancaster London Hotel on Wednesday 13th March 2019.