A series of new and refurbished buildings provide a range of new learning facilities for The Grange Centre for People with Disabilities. These include flexible learning spaces and workshops for horticulture, woodworking and pottery activities, as well as a shop selling their produce, a cafe with training kitchen, community spaces, a new public ‘Changing Places’ toilet and covered outdoor activity areas.

The charity provides housing, care, training and social opportunities for adults with a wide range of learning disabilities. The new outdoor learning facilities will improve the ‘Skills For Life’ training they offer to residents and to people they support in the local community, including vital work experience and opportunities to interact with the public. The new facilities support the popular cultivation activities in the adjacent historic Walled Garden.

The Grange, set in a former country house and grounds, is within the Green Belt and the Little Bookham Conservation Area. The design was developed through a close collaborative engagement process with staff and the people they support.

The multiple new buildings are inserted around existing refurbished buildings and linked by covered outdoor spaces to create an informal new centre for the wide range of activities. The highly sustainable design targets BREEAM Very Good rating.

Client: The Grange Centre for People with Disabilities

Cost: £3.5 million

Status: Current (Technical Design stage)

Team: Matter Architecture, Ian Sayer & Co, Michael Hadi Associates, Laurence Owen Ltd, Greengage Environmental, AW Fire, Socotec, Wildstone Planning