Rathfriland Medical Village

Avanti Architects have designed a new 16,000m2 Medical Village close to the town centre of Rathfriland in Co. Down to provide new elderly residential accommodation as well as much needed health and well-being services.

The new village relocates the current Health Centre and 6 GPs from their current premises in the town, and will provide additional associated facilities including Physiotherapy, Podiatry, a Pharmacy, a new Dentist and an Optician.

At the heart of the new development a 140 bed Residential Nursing Home which will address an increasing demand for elderly residential facilities in the area. The new nursing home will provide a comfortable environment with single en-suite rooms arranged around a series of landscaped courtyards and gardens with generous levels of natural light and ventilation.

The site will also provide four single story retirement homes as well as five two story town houses which have been flexibly designed to suit multi-generational use. Fourteen assisted living apartments have been also been flexibly planned to cater for a range of individuals needs, from those enjoying relatively independent living to those requiring substantial or increasing levels of assistance.

Support facilities located on site adjacent to the new care home, such as indoor and outdoor therapy and activity spaces will cater for both the residents of the nursing home as well as those in assisted living apartments.

Situated on the edge of the small market town and in close proximity to countryside, the semi-rural setting has been a key driver in the development of the scheme where the individual buildings adopt a scale and massing in keeping with the surrounding town buildings and use the steep topography of the site to reduce the visual impact of this relatively large development. A considered and abundant use of landscaping, using local plant species, helps to ensure that this development will provide a sustainable and attractive new centre in Rathfriland catering for the future health and well-being needs of the local community.

Client

Ballward Estate Ltd.