Member Article

C4 Consulting appointed on £18m therapy centre

Warrington-based architecture and project management firm C4 Consulting has been appointed by national charity, Caudwell Chidren to design an £18million new therapy and research centre to be developed near Keele in Staffordshire.

In what will be the first of its kind in the UK, the Caudwell International Children’s Centre (CICC) has been meticulously designed to provide an ideal environment for disabled people, with a particular focus on the needs of children with autism and neurodevelopmental conditions.

New computer generated images (CGIs) released by the charity show the 60,000 sq ft iconic building set in the North Staffordshire countryside with curved steel roofs around two internal courtyards, clad in timber and stone.

Developed from concepts drawn by charity Chief Executive, Trudi Beswick, and with regular consultation with children and families affected by autism, the charity has appointed C4 Consulting Ltd to complete the iconic design. Buckingham Group Contracting hs been appointed as the main contractor, with Tier Consult and KGA Partnership leading the structural and mechanical electrical engineering respectively.

Working closely with architect James Pass and the design team from C4, the charity has scrutinised every element of the design and visited schools and therapy centres across the UK, America and Canada to ensure the architecture would be at the forefront of building designs for autism. The scheme is on target for completion in September 2017.

Speaking about the landmark project, Damian Horridge, Managing Director of C4 Consulting Ltd, said: “All of the team at C4 are delighted to be working on such an important facility for disabled children. Caudwell Children have very clear aspirations for the building and provide invaluable insight into the day-to-day use of the building and the potential challenges the children who will visit the Centre may face. It is our job to realise these aspirations and I’m thrilled with the way the building looks at this point.”

Trudi Beswick, added: “It started with a sketch as I tried to work out how children with sensory and social challenges could move around the building with the least amount of stress. As I worked on it at home my daughter asked ‘why are you drawing a butterfly’, which coincidentally happens to also be the charity’s logo.

“As well as being practical and conducive to successful therapies I was also adamant that the building should be somewhere children and families would want to go and would feel safe. It couldn’t be just another hospital or health centre, it had to be somewhere inspirational.”

The Caudwell Children CICC is part of a long term project by the charity to provide a new structured programme of support, therapy and research for autistic children and their families.

Backed by a group of prominent philanthropists led by the charity’s founder, John Caudwell, the charity has been working with leading clinicians, academics and researchers to finalise the plans which are due to be announced shortly.

For more information about the charity visit www.caudwellchildren.com

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Kate Healey .