Week 13_01/04/12

When thinking about the design of the Alms Houses and French Hospital I was unsure on how to approach the design, so I decided to go and visit a set of Alms Houses in Rochester, Kent.

Alms Houses(Centre) & French Hospital (Right), Rochester, Kent.

The square where the alms houses lay was previously Theobald Square, with 19 terraced houses which were built in 1840 on the site of an old brewery.  The houses were completely restored and rearranged to make 39 self contained flats for residents of Huguenot descendants.  The accommodation has recently been enlarged and they are currently collecting funding for a new 'National Huguenot Centre' which will be situated in the centre of Rochester high street.

The french hospital itself, is not a hospital as we would think, however it is more of a care home facility for the residents which need assistant on site.  The hospital contains hundreds of paintings and artefacts from the history of the Huguenots, with old dates and listings of the huguenots in the country dating back hundreds of years.

The new 'National Huguenot Centre' should be completed by 2015, and aims to accommodate a cinema where tourists can learn about the history of Huguenots, a trades gallery which will present the working life of the Huguenots displaying what type of work they did, there is a space for all sensed in the centre, small pots of relevant aromas from the trades will be on display for people to get an all round feel of the space.  Similar to the Severs House that we visited in London at the beginning of the term.  The centre is also to contain a library, archive space and reading room.

If you would like to donate money to the National Huguenot Centre please contact them at appeal@frenchhospital.org.uk

So how does this visit effect my project and design ideas, today when I visited the area it was Palm Sunday and they had a march up the high street and into the centre square of the alms houses.  I felt like the square of the alms houses was a really important feature, there was also a common room, gardens and memorial garden located around the back of the houses adjacent to the Roman Wall in Rochester.