Bluebell Park
Winner · Residential Property · RICS Awards, North West
Housing association First Ark’s first extra care development was designed by PRP to deliver 101 new homes for affordable rent, including seven apartments for dementia sufferers alongside 21 shared-ownership apartments plus a restaurant, lounge areas, and hairdressing salon and activity rooms. [1]
Described as the ‘supported living model for the future,’ by Bob Taylor, CEO of the First Ark Group, to which KHT belongs, the care village will help to ‘address some of the strain placed on our hospitals and reduce public costs to the NHS and social care budgets,’ allowing people to live as independently as possible, for as long as possible.
Product
We installed four FC60E integrity ‘e’ rated vertical fire curtains to limit and control the spread of fire with a minimum of 60 mins of protection.
This provides staff, residents, and the emergency services 60 mins of guaranteed fire escape time, necessary in a project designed to be used by vulnerable adults.
The first floor of Bluebell Park required two Active Fire Curtains to cover the exposed sides of a mezzanine floor, which allowed for an increase in natural light on the main corridor to the bedrooms. This was repeated on the second floor.
These cut-outs allowed for what would be a dark corridor to be filled with light, making it a pleasant route for staff and residents to walk across, and brings mood-lifting benefits, long associated with increased access to natural light.
Result
All Fire Curtain systems were installed in line with quoted time frames and answered all requirements set by our client.
Our relationship with Bluebell Park continues with us maintaining and servicing all systems.
Project
Based in Huyton, a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, the area boasts good travel connections to Liverpool and a bustling town centre known for its mix of well-known and independent shopping destinations, providing residents of Bluebell Park, now Milner Court and Crawford Gardens, with excellent local amenities.
We were delighted to work in conjunction with United Living and PRP, to install Active Fire systems, with fire curtains, to prevent the spread of fire and smoke through the buildings corridor atriums to upper or lower levels.
Challenge
Upon building completion, the property was to be used by residents who could be living with Dementia, or other impactful health conditions.
This meant the average escape time usually associated with building users would increase, and therefore the number of minutes of protection would need to be increased alongside it.
This was addressed by installing 60-minute integrity ‘e’ rated fire curtains.
Links
PRP, ‘Bluebell Park, Huyton’ 29.10.2021
Liverpool Echo, ‘Look inside new Bluebell Park “care village” in Huyton’ 29.10.2021
PRP, ‘Bluebell Park, Huyton’ 29.10.2021
