Bushey Care Home

The proposal was to build a T shaped four storey care home on a sloping site with wide open corridors, residential suites, communal rooms open to the corridor and one floor for people living with dementia.

The aim of the design was to maintain ease of movement around the building and open access to as many of the communal rooms as possible to promote community living and prevent unnecessary isolation.

A code compliant care home is based on a progressive horizontal evacuation procedure with the staff having to assist with the evacuation of a sub-compartment of more than 10 bedrooms if the fire alarm is activated. This type of design relies on a high degree of compartmentation, including cross corridor doors, to limit the number of people affected by the fire.

The client for the Bushey care home wanted very few cross corridor doors and as many communal rooms open to the corridor as possible. The majority of the occupants have their own suite of rooms comprising a refreshment area, lounge, bedroom and bathroom, with dining facilities, hairdresser, activity rooms, cinema, communal lounges and internet cafe’s being provided centrally.

A stay-put policy was adopted for the suite areas and using a combination of natural and mechanical smoke control, the majority of cross corridor doors where removed and the corridors kept free of smoke in the event of fire, even with communal rooms open to the corridor.

By using a combination of active and passive fire safety measures the visible fire safety barriers were kept to a minimum enabling ease of use of the building. The stay-put policy means that the disruption in the event of fire is also kept to a minimum and with the staff alert system there is 24 hour monitoring of the fire alarm ensuring prompt initiation of fire service attendance.