insideKENT Magazine Issue 90 - September 2019 | Page 150

NEWS
DEMAND FOR AGE-FRIENDLY NEW HOMES ON THE RISE
Demand for age-friendly new homes is set to
rise, according to the team at Canterbury-based
Clague Architects, as more than a quarter of
the UK’s population will be aged over 60 years old
within five years.
A recent report from the Royal Institute of British
Architects (RIBA) has called for urgent action to
tackle the severe lack of age-friendly mainstream
housing to meet the growing demand, especially in
the South East.
Tim Wolfe-Murray, Partner at Clague Architects,
said: “We need to plan for an older population to
help manage health and social care costs, especially
in our coastal communities where people naturally
want to relocate to retire to.
“It is our villages, small communities and small towns
which continue to see their young people replaced
by those over 50 years of age, and where there is
now the greatest need for age-friendly housing.”
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The RIBA report found that a quarter of over-55s
were currently considering moving home, but
more than half felt that the housing options on offer
were inadequate southern vistas. Paths through these gardens
connect the dwellings with each other, and will link
the various clusters once the last of the four phases
is complete.
Working closely with its client Pentland Homes,
Clague designed the Terlingham Gardens
development at Hawkinge, near Folkestone, which
includes 62 bungalows designed in small clusters. Tim Wolfe-Murray continued: “We agree with RIBA
about mainstreaming age-friendly design so that all
new build housing is accessible and adaptable is the
way forward in order to meet the needs of this
growing section of our community.
At Terlingham, each property is multi-aspect, with
one side facing a conventional street with front doors
and access for vehicles, refuse collection, and residents
and visitor parking. Each house projects to the side
to provide a view to the street from the kitchen at
the rear, across covered parking, avoiding the
common problem of single-storey developments
having only small bedroom window to the front.
To the rear, the open plan living spaces look out
onto semi-private terraces that sit within landscaped
communal gardens that all benefit from lengthy
“At the same time there needs to be a change in
mindset, with people more open to having shared
gardens and communal spaces. There are lessons to
be learnt from almshouses, which were in effect the
first homes for the elderly or needy in our
communities, with many shared elements.”