This new Residential Home and Daycare Facility, located on the outskirts of Downpatrick, accommodates up to 24 residents, 18 on a full-time and 6 on a part-time basis. The Daycare facility comprises of a series of classrooms based around an external courtyard – this is a separate element to the residential aspect of the project. The scheme is sensitively landscaped and this will assist in the development of life skills for these users and also embody the values of the client body – giving people with learning disabilities a non-institutional and welcoming living environment.

The site provided numerous challenges to the design team and a concept based on the material qualities of ring-forts and rural and known precedents of sensitively positioned buildings in the landscape quickly emerged. The topography was dealt with through a series of splits in proposed levels and this also indirectly led to a complex of buildings which are based on traditional rural forms and familiar buildings found in our countryside.