Hammerson House, Wohl Campus

Client: Nightingale Hammerson

: P+HS Architects - delivery architect

Hammerson House, Wohl Campus is a flagship Third Age dwelling located a short walk from Hampstead Heath. A redevelopment of an ageing on-site facility, it provides a homely environment for 116 residents from the Jewish community.

As well as rooms for each resident – arranged into distinct households for varying levels of care need – the four-storey building also offers dining rooms, communal lounges, a café and lobby as well as therapy suites and spaces for festival celebrations. The scheme has been ima¬¬gined as a modern take on a country house hotel, accessed via a sweeping driveway, with visitors and returning residents catching a glimpse of its memorable stone entrance portal from the street. Bedrooms sit within pitched roof ‘houses’ inspired by the local Hampstead Arts & Crafts vernacular. Nightingale Hammerson is an independent charity and a leading specialist in the care of older people. Combined with Nightingale House, a sister residence in South London – both funded with charitable donations - Hammerson House, Wohl Campus offers ‘home from home’ care to over 250 residents. Pollard Thomas Edwards engaged with the client’s specialist care teams in the design and layout of the care-specific ‘houses’ – addressing residential, nursing, dementia and palliative care - and worked with a country house hotelier to create a suitably relaxed environment that enables delivery of high levels of residential care. P+HS Architects’ expertise in designing for later life ensured that the therapeutic elements of the design were well understood, and could be developed with the client during the build.