Baldry Gardens

The L-shaped plan contains two clusters of rooms arranged on either side of a central corridor. Reception, waiting and consultation rooms have been placed on the first floor so that they can be naturally lit without compromising the privacy of patients.

On ground floor the location of store rooms and refuse area, which do not require natural lighting, create a ‘blind’ elevation relieved by three flush glazed frames to an office. This gives the impression of a single storey building resting on a monolithic storey of brickwork. A similar fenestration pattern is repeated in the southwest elevation where the windows to the group room are masked by the external garden wall.

The chosen facing brick is varied in both tone and hue to forge a connection between the varying brickwork colours of the surrounding buildings. Clay airbricks (in four colours) and weepholes achieved by the omission of mortar in the perpends mean that there is no evidence of the often plastic building products associated with contemporary brickwork.

The two-storey datum established by the precast concrete copings is broken by a third storey plant room, which rises above and marks the entrance where the two wings converge. The entrance is marked by a stepped brick reveal which alludes further to mass.