Grange Park Surgery provides the population of Burley in Wharfedale with Primary Care. The Grange Park Surgery premises are too small for the existing practice patient list and with patient numbers projected to rise significantly by approximately 1200-2400 via local housing proposals which have secured planning consent The brief requires an expansion of the building by 55%.
Grange Park Surgery is ideally located in the middle of the village. The existing medical centre is a modern, purpose-built building of limited architectural merit which is set back from the street behind a small car park dominated by dense low- rise landscaping.
The main planning constraint to the proposed development is the location of the site in the Burley Conservation Area.
The brief embraces the concept of a truly community-orientated building. The GP provision is a means of way finding through to a variety of other clinical referrals, community services and lifestyle choices. The building’s design must reflect this and aid the growing trend of ‘social prescribing’
The introduction of the proposed 2-storey contemporary extension at the front of the existing medical centre will have a significant impact. The loss of some existing screen planting and the buildings proximity to the road, together with its contemporary appearance would result in a far more apparent presence than the existing low-rise building.
The extension has avoided being overtly dominant or strident, seeking to sit comfortably within the setting. The contemporary design, utilising a limited palette of materials seeks to reference the conservation area and the existing building through its use of gritstone for the base, with a natural warm use of timber cladding at the first floor to both counterbalance the large roof of the existing surgery and the relationship to the mature woodland.
The architecture is of high quality with a form which accommodates the space requirements of the brief. The proposed extension has been carefully considered to ensure that it relates well to the existing building, and in respect of how it will be seen in the context of the Conservation Area, and that the plan and form of the extension draws its expression from the stone wall of the existing surgery and the strong line of the eaves.
Planning approval obtained October 2022
