Rightsizer aims to provide an aspirational place to live for older people, with a variety of care and support needs, whilst helping to free up much-needed family-sized homes locally in the borough.
Manufacture of the building frame can take place off-site, bringing benefits in terms of safety, quality, speed, and potentially local employment. By deploying a demountable structural system, specifically designed for disassembly and reuse, waste will be significantly reduced, supporting the principles of a circular economy and low embodied carbon construction.
This system could be used across the wider development for buildings of different uses and where their use could potentially change in the future. Rightsizer is a community-focused concept; it embraces the idea of fostering an integrated and intergenerational community through the provision of a range of accessible amenities. A strong emphasis is also placed on repositioning care as a vocation, making Meridian Water a great place to work as well as live.
The green system centres around the Brooks and associated ecological corridors, and the urban farm at rooftop level, whilst the social system seeks to activate spaces and encourage socialisation through a network of diverse open spaces, from intimate garden nooks to flexible public space for flexible curation and events. All of the submissions provided fresh ideas whilst reimagining our Phase 2 outline planning application in a way that really improved the sustainability credentials of the whole development.
Three entries stood out to the judging panel and I am incredibly excited about seeing the concepts they presented getting developed into a set of proposals that we can implement at Meridian Water over time. Moving to Rightsizer will be a positive life-enhancing decision.
