MacEwen Award 2025 winner: Severn View Park Care Home

Set amid an incipient housing estate outside Caldicot in Monmouthshire, Severn View Park Care Home consists of four low-lying villas enclosing a wide courtyard with a large gable-roofed hall at its centre. On approach, this assembly could be a farmyard, a yoga spa or perhaps a religious retreat. Coming closer, its high-grade brick, untreated timber and careful landscaping confirm an impressive level of ambition in form and aesthetic.

Each single-storey villa acts as an independent household for eight residents with dementia, fronted by its own small garden to act as an orientation point. Residents have an unusual freedom to roam around the planted courtyard, with its ‘sensory’ and ‘activity’ zones and a flock of chickens.

Inside, this care is evident everywhere. A simple hall for hats and coats leads to a long space, roughly 25m by 6m, broken down into four smaller areas to provide intimacy while maintaining sightlines. At one end is an open household kitchen, then a large ‘farmyard’ dining table with a comfortable snug alongside if people want a calmer environment for meals, conversation or rest. At the centre, opposite the entrance, are colourful high-backed armchairs and a lifelike electric fire surrounded by open brickwork. Finally, there is a wallpapered lounge with seating, television and built-in shelving. The entire space feels homely, with a generous scattering of plants, ornaments and, when I visit, Christmas decorations.

The driving force behind the relocation and reimagining of the home’s well-loved but outdated 1960s predecessor in Chepstow was Colin Richings, integrated service manager at Monmouthshire County Council. Throughout the seven-year process, his philosophy was consistent. ‘It’s all about trying to live well with dementia,’ he says, ‘and to achieve that you need the same ingredients you and I need: a sense of purpose, of involvement, occupation and attachment, a sense of comfort – to care back. And above all a sense of familiarity, an emotional resonance with the space.’

Pentan Architects has achieved this mix with sensitivity, invention and necessary pragmatism. The Cardiff-based practice has a strong record in the care sector, and responded closely to Richings’ brief to produce an effective yet attractive domestic space. Enjoying the cheerful clutter that has built up since his last visit, associate director Dafydd Tanner says: ‘We already knew what the private sector wanted but here we went back to square one.’ Some of the resulting changes are small, others substantial, but all contribute to the desired familiarity, reducing distress for incoming residents and lessening the risk of isolation.

To this end, institutional qualities have been minimised in residents’ rooms. The en-suite, storage and facilities are integrated and unobtrusive, while a tall L-shaped window provides generous natural light and views out to the large garden behind each villa. Beneath, a long window seat provides a social space, enhanced by carpeting and a lowered ceiling, which can be personalised with cushions, plants and personal items, creating the relaxed setting for conversation absent in so many such rooms. On a small note, the position of the bed has also been altered, with residents not immediately visible from the corridor.

Richings explains: ‘Safety is always key, and it’s the watchword of relatives, but it’s not necessarily the only benchmark of quality of life. There should be risk in everybody’s life and that goes for people living with dementia too.’

A few other examples of care: the wide, gently curving bedroom corridor has a small sitting room at one end for private conversations or quiet reading, one of the villa’s diversity of spaces giving residents the freedom to be who they want to be. Opposite the main entrance is the garden room, hosting art, craft and gardening classes, as well as family gatherings. This leads out to the main household garden with its beds, allotments and polytunnel, tended by residents, volunteers and a charity, Growing Space. At the other end of the corridor, the link to the adjoining villa contains staff rooms, storage and large laundries, keeping noisy services and utilitarian equipment out of the way.

But there is an equally important change at Severn View Park, one that is fundamental to its philosophy and synergistic with its architecture. Rather than staff specialising in caregiving, domestic or kitchen roles, uniform-free ‘household staff’ now undertake all tasks, living as much as possible among the residents. This required buy-in from all employees, and the process was not without challenges, especially for those long established in roles with specific skill sets. By and large, the transition has been successful, with most appreciating the new variety, as well as the closer relationship with residents.

Other outcomes include more social contact between staff, greater flexibility around rotas and holidays, and easier recruitment for these more rounded roles. It’s an approach to staffing that mirrors the ‘butterfly’ model of dementia care with its more personal, family-like mindset. Its success is perhaps best seen is the kitchens. Usually inaccessible in such homes, here they become part of the communal space, bringing familiar sights, sounds and smells into daily life, with the farmyard table acting as a social centre.

Deputy head of care Kim Wallace says: ‘The staff sit down and eat lunch with residents at the tables – it’s great to see them all together. They’re used for craft and cooking too – everyone’s been joining in, doing a lot for Christmas, making decorations, peeling carrots or mixing cakes. And when you start smelling the food, that makes a real difference.’

In our discussions, the MacEwen Award jury was particularly affected by this aspect, with Mike Worthington of People Architects saying: ‘I’m really struck by the reframing of relationships between staff and residents living together. It’s a home not an institution. It fills me with hope.’

Staff also made significant contributions during two years of consultation. For instance, a cinema room was inserted at the top of the courtyard to provide safe internal access to all villas, and now hosts film showings and exercise groups. More conspicuous is the Barrow, the hall at the centre of the courtyard, which is large enough to accommodate everyone for Sunday dinner. It also hosts numerous events and classes, all visible through its large windows, filling the entire home with vitality. It was only added when staff pointed out the lack of a gathering place in the original plans. ‘I was just a bit obsessed by the household model, reducing the scale, keeping it domestic,’ Richings admits. ‘I hadn’t sufficiently considered the need for all the residents to come together as one.’

The Barrow has proved key to achieving another ambition. Those from the surrounding estate are welcome to use it as a much-needed community space, holding parent-and-baby groups or craft fairs, so long as those in the home can be involved too. Wallace says: ‘You see the residents dancing, sitting outside together in summer, listening to the brass band rehearse each week, enjoying local children coming to read to them.’ Drawing on Irish practice, the intention is to make the home part of the local community, giving the latter a sense of ownership, an emotional attachment to its life and residents, forged through shared experiences.

Severn View Park survived design-and-build – and Covid – more or less intact, aided in part by the committed support of the Welsh government, which funded roughly 60 per cent of the total cost, viewing the home as a flagship for its integrated support and living programmes. Some low-hanging fruit did suffer – the Barrow’s proposed ‘crinkly tin cladding of a traditional village hall’ was ousted for a Scandi-barn functionality. The contractor was responsible for the surrounding estate, hence the suburban entrance and reduced glazing, but became increasingly invested in the success of the project, a dedication since rewarded by industry praise.

As we leave, Tanner says with justifiable pride: ‘I can’t quite believe this was built.’ And it may well be challenging to replicate Severn View Park in its entirety. Richings reflects: ‘For us, it has been about demonstrating a different model. I don’t think a private care-home provider is going to build a space like this but they can create different spaces so people can remain individuals in a group-living environment, and they can implement community integration, they can look at staffing – any of these make such a difference to wellbeing.’

There are difficult choices to be made around design models for dementia care homes, particularly as incidence increases. As someone with epilepsy, and thus a significantly higher chance of developing dementia, I may not be entirely objective, but it seems clear to me that the optimistic example of Severn View Park should now be adopted as the yardstick for dementia care in this country.

See more MacEwen projects and architecture for the common good 

IN NUMBERS:
Contract cost c £8 million
Cost per m² c £3,400
GIA 2,350m²
Communal space per resident 13m² 
PV panels 316