Burnham Waters Wellness Centre

This project involves the design of a new wellness centre at Burnham Waters Retirement Community, providing a dedicated health, leisure and community facility for residents within the wider development.

The building has been designed as a single-storey, highly accessible facility, bringing together a range of wellness-focused uses within a clear and efficient layout. The internal arrangement has been carefully considered to support fitness, treatment and swimming uses, while ensuring that the building remains intuitive, comfortable and easy to navigate for residents, visitors and staff.

Architecturally, the wellness centre adopts a contemporary barn-inspired form, with a series of simple gabled elements, generous areas of glazing and a robust material palette of metal roofing, vertical cladding and brick detailing. This approach gives the building a strong visual identity while ensuring it remains calm, legible and appropriate to its setting.

A key focus of the design has been to balance architectural quality with practical deliverability. The single-storey form improves accessibility, simplifies circulation and creates a building that is easier to construct, maintain and operate over the long term. The result is a scheme that feels refined and visually engaging, without unnecessary complexity.

The generous glazed gables help to activate the principal elevations, drawing natural light deep into the building and creating a strong relationship between the internal spaces and the surrounding landscape. These openings also give the wellness centre a more welcoming and civic presence, helping it read as an important community building within the development.

Inclusivity has been embedded into the design from the outset. Step-free access, clear entrances, logical circulation routes and a fully single-level arrangement ensure that the building can be used comfortably by a wide range of users, including older residents and those with reduced mobility.

Elegant Architectural Ltd developed the architectural concept and supporting design rationale for the building, carefully balancing aesthetics, function, accessibility and long-term operational requirements. The project demonstrates a considered approach to design, where the visual character of the building is directly informed by how it will be used, maintained and experienced.

The result is a well-proportioned, accessible and visually distinctive wellness centre, designed to support health, wellbeing and community life at Burnham Waters.

Project status: Planning application submitted.