First-of-its-kind

High levels of natural light and ventilation are the hallmarks of Tree Top Village in Newcastle, a retirement village with an inspirational design that achieves its goal through extensive use of VELUX Modular Skylights. The award-winning ‘village’, designed by Architects ID Partnership, is the first of its kind in the UK and is focused on delaying the onset of dementia.

High levels of daylight are achieved by a central four-storey atrium with a row of 60 VELUX ridgelights. Complementing this are ten VELUX longlights that provide additional illumination in areas away from the atrium. All of which were installed by Glazing Systems & Installations Limited.

In combination, the ridgelights and longlights help this exemplar mixed-use retirement village, managed by Your Homes Newcastle (YHN), make extensive use of natural light, which recent research shows has beneficial effects on the well-being and recovery rate of patients.

Tree Top Village was awarded the ‘Outstanding Development of the Year’ accolade in 2017 by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) North East. The scheme was also a finalist at the 2017 Inside Housing Development Awards in the category for ‘Best older people’s housing development (over 100 homes)’. The development was shortlisted for the national RTPI Awards 2018 in the ‘Excellence in Planning for Health and Wellbeing’ category.