WILL+Partners Architects has been appointed by charity and housing provider One YMCA, to deliver a new Peartree Hostel in Hertfordshire
Developed during the pandemic, the Peartree Hostel aims to tackle homelessness in the region.
The design includes one hundred residential self-contained studios, two of which are accessible and four cluster studios which have access to a shared kitchen facility.
All studios have a dedicated kitchenette, bathroom pod, storage, and a desk. These studios provide a safe, secure, and private space, that residents can call their own.
The new facility is being designed in line with One YMCA’s #Mission 25 goals; a series of ten hashtags One YMCA has committed to since 2020, with an aim to double its impact by 2025.
The hashtags include #ProjectResilience; #EndHomelessness; #BetterPlaces; #DevelopingPeople; #GoingDigital; #MakingHomes; #ProjectConnect and #GoingGreen and focus on how One YMCA aims to improve lives, develop, and support vulnerable people by providing access to learning and training and making positive environmental impacts.
‘A ‘green’ design solution’
Kevin Goldsmith, lead designer on the project at Will+Partners said: “We have designed human behaviour informed environments, which considers the psychological and emotional needs of its occupants.
“Whether that is access to daylight, use of colour to support their wellbeing and choice of materials used to create a stress-free environment. We have also approached the design with a low Impact ‘green’ design solution to assist the facility in meeting net zero targets.
“On discussing the project with One YMCA, we advised them that human experience design solutions, could include providing spaces for residents to grow fruit and vegetables, which they could then use in their own meals, helping them reduce their impacts and become self-sufficient whilst learning new skills.
“We also encouraged One YMCA to have some beehives on the roof to assist in the biodiversity and ecology of the site. The vision is they may even start to produce their own honey and could even sell this and the produce they grow in the local community, linking back to their hashtag campaign.”
‘Supporting the most vulnerable young people in our community’
Mark Turner, director of operations at One YMCA, commented: “We are committed to ending homelessness and supporting the most vulnerable young people in our community towards independence and independent living.
“This new Peartree Hostel is going to be amazing and will hugely support and integrate with our Dynamic Pathway to Independence support programmes. I can’t wait to see the reality of everything WILL+Partners have helped us design and create, they have been phenomenal.”
Procurement of the project is scheduled to complete during the early part of 2022, followed by the construction period, which is scheduled for completion in April 2023.
