Later Living
We support developers in alleviating the pressure of an ageing society by providing contemporary, sustainable, high quality living experiences, appropriate for all stages of later life.
One of the biggest challenges we face in housing today is the significant undersupply of suitable accommodation for an increasingly ageing population and the most vulnerable within our communities.
Improvements in healthcare have undoubtedly had a positive benefit in that people are living longer than previous generations and enjoying lengthier and healthier periods of retirement. Whilst this is certainly a reason to celebrate, it’s also exposed an enormous challenge.
By 2050, 1 in 4 people in the UK will be over 65, putting increasing pressure on the housing system and care providers. Addressing this involves finding solutions to deliver much needed purpose-built later living accommodation.
It has the potential to benefit hundreds of thousands of older people around the country and to propel the growth of integrated retirement communities.
Whether retirement living, assisted living or extra care housing, we understand the need to provide choice and an environment that offers a sense of home and belonging.
Who we work with
We provide engineering that fosters humancentric design for the following:
- Developers
- Investors
- End user occupiers
- Local authorities
- Main contractors
- Design teams
Our early involvement helps to secure planning permission through the contribution of engineering feasibility and design during the masterplanning and optioneering stages of a project. This can be crucial to maximising land value and meeting Care Quality Commission regulations.
Experiences for all stages of later life
Designed for wellbeing
The design and performance of the building itself is paramount to delivering this experience. And that’s where we come in.
As design engineers, it’s our job to take care of the site, structure and efficiency of your facility. We believe there are four key areas that influence excellence:
- Energy efficiency: creating value for you
Energy is one of the most significant operational costs in running a later living facility. Reducing expenditure on lighting, heating, hot water and catering energy closes the gap between net and gross value.
Detailed energy modelling optimises a building’s form and layout to maximise access to daylight and natural ventilation, reducing running costs.
- Simple automated systems: reducing cost and removing complexity
Ensuring the safety, comfort and wellbeing of residents is a key priority for the later living sector. Our approach is high-tech, driven by understanding what features are most important to residents, so that we can simplify the controls and improve how effective they are. Low intervention outcomes are ultimately preferable – everyone wants buildings that are efficient, simple to use and deliver optimum comfort.
- Wellbeing and comfort: creating human-centric environments
Buildings designed for wellbeing are proven to reduce ill health, improve recovery rates and boost cognitive abilities in residents. Placing health and wellbeing top of the agenda for residents and staff, our experts will optimise your building to positively impact mood, sleep patterns and levels of anxiety.
- Fully integrated design: efficiency during design and construction
Standardised engineering solutions reduce time and cost during design and construction, increasing the value of a facility without compromising quality.
Our pre-engineered solution for civil, structural, mechanical and electrical design for the later living sector is fully detailed, co-ordinated and ready to go. It offers an optimised design which complies with design guidance and best practice.
Where we add value
The performance of later living spaces have significant impact on the wellbeing experience of its residents. We make a difference by addressing the following:
Our acousticians create spaces that improve residents experience, reducing stress and enhancing wellbeing.
Our building physics specialists will analyse why a building is underperforming and not delivering the predicted comfort or energy efficiencies. Through a series of operational, control and retrofit measures we turn the dial from under-performance to optimum performance.
We ensure buildings are compliant with all fire safety regulations and for new build, our fire safety engineers will design for compliance with the Building Safety Bill to provide all stakeholders with access to the ‘golden thread’ of information.
We work with a range of stakeholders to model and identify passive design techniques that promote natural ventilation whilst improving the air tightness of buildings to reduce energy wastage. Our structural designs include embodied carbon calculations and advocate the use of more sustainable low-carbon materials.
We can identify operational and investment opportunities to improve the energy performance of healthcare assets. We fully cost all recommendations and help implement change programmes that deliver the most effective return on investment. It’s an approach that mitigates stranded assets and improves ESG credentials.
Representing a significant opportunity for asset owners to maximise space and create additional income-generating opportunities. We fully cost proposals to invest in renewable energy and collocate where appropriate with energy storage solutions.
Through our proprietary software tool, StratEV, we model the requirements and opportunities for charging to suit the needs of residents, staff and visitors.
