Steel completes for Kent retirement village

Working on behalf of main contractor Kier, H Young Structures has completed the erection of 400t of steelwork for the Ledian Gardens Retirement Village near Maidstone, Kent.

Main client for the scheme is Inspired Villages who operate six sites in England and is currently on track to deliver a further 2,500 homes in the next six years.

In a bid to lower carbon emissions and fuel bills, Ledian Gardens will use energy efficient ground source heat pumps to heat radiators and provide hot water.

A village centre and 56 apartments are housed in three conjoined steel-framed structures, while another 10 apartments will be in adjacent timber-framed buildings and a renovated oast house.

Sat on pad foundations, the three steel-framed structures are all of a similar design and all comprise three-storeys, including ground floor. Building A and B both have footprints of 22m × 50m, and accommodate apartments of various sizes on the upper two floors, while the ground level has some living spaces alongside front-of-house, a restaurant, keep-fit facilities and a 9m-long swimming pool.

Structure C is the largest, measuring 19m × 82m and it will have the Village’s reception and family rooms on the ground floor with apartments above.

Kier Project Manager Ian Saunders says the scheme will offer a dozen different living space variants, from one-bedroom flats to penthouse apartments. The various room sizes and the pitched roof, which accommodates third floor living spaces, have been the main challenge, which the steel frame solution has overcome.

Ledian Gardens phase two is scheduled to begin later this year.