Caddick completes £14m Chorlton later living scheme

Caddick Construction has completed the £14 million Bath House development in Chorlton, delivering 50 apartments for people aged over 55 on the former leisure centre site.

MSV Housing Group will own and operate the 50 social rent homes, which are arranged across two five storey buildings and were designed using Housing our Ageing Population Panel for Innovation principles. The approach places accessibility, adaptable layouts, natural light and useful shared space at the centre of the residential design rather than treating those requirements as later additions.

The apartments include one and two bedroom homes, with circulation and internal layouts intended to remain practical as residents’ mobility changes. Wider door openings, manageable thresholds and sufficient space around key fixtures reduce the amount of alteration needed if an occupant later requires mobility equipment or additional support.

Bath House also includes a residents’ lounge, central courtyard, garden, cycle storage and other communal facilities. Those spaces extend the usable area beyond individual apartments and give residents places to meet without making the development operate like an institutional care setting.

The former Chorlton Leisure Centre occupied the site before redevelopment. Reusing the brownfield plot required demolition and clearance before the residential structures could advance, while salvaged architectural elements were retained for incorporation into the new development.

That sequence allowed references to the former baths to remain within a building with a different function. Retention of selected materials also reduced the need to treat every element of the old structure as waste, although the main construction still required new foundations, services and building fabric suited to residential occupation.

Accessibility affects the building services and common areas as well as the apartment layouts. Lifts, lighting, door controls and circulation routes have to remain straightforward to use, while maintenance access must not compromise the space residents need to move safely through corridors and shared areas.

Fire safety has similar implications in a building occupied by older residents. Compartmentation, detection, alarm systems and protected escape routes have to work with the residential layout, and the design must account for the possibility that some occupants may move more slowly or require assistance during an evacuation.

The two building arrangement concentrates services vertically compared with conventional houses. Water, drainage, electrical distribution, ventilation and fire systems pass through stacked accommodation, so risers and service zones have to be coordinated carefully with structure and compartment walls.

Repeated apartment layouts can make installation more efficient, but they also increase the importance of consistent workmanship. A poorly detailed service penetration or fire stopping defect can be reproduced across several floors if it is not identified early, making inspection and quality control important throughout fit out.

MSV, Manchester City Council and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority have supported the development. The location places later living housing within an established neighbourhood rather than on an isolated edge of the city, giving residents access to shops, public transport and other services already used by the wider community.

That location also changes the construction environment. Deliveries, plant movements and temporary works had to be managed within an occupied urban area, while neighbouring roads and pavements remained in daily use. The contractor therefore had less freedom over site logistics than would be available on a large greenfield scheme.

The HAPPI principles used at Bath House are intended to support independent living for longer rather than define a separate form of care accommodation. The building has to work as ordinary housing while providing enough flexibility for residents to remain in place as their physical needs change.

Private and shared outdoor areas contribute to that objective. Balconies, the central courtyard and the garden allow residents to use external space without leaving the development, while the common lounge provides an indoor setting for social activity that does not depend on entering another resident’s home.

Completion also returns a long vacant site to permanent use. The former leisure centre had already ceased operating, so the new housing restores occupation and activity while keeping a community function through shared facilities and the relationship between the building and the surrounding Chorlton neighbourhood.

The project has moved through a two year construction programme from cleared brownfield land to an occupied residential asset. With the building now handed over, the test of the design will be whether its circulation, apartment layouts, communal spaces and services continue to support residents without requiring substantial alteration as the population ages.