Stephen George & Partners has designed the new multi-million pound ‘village’ for the visually impaired. It will offer choice to over 3,000 local visually impaired people by providing residential care, day care and community services for those living in Wolverhampton, Dudley, Sandwell and Staffordshire.

The £18m scheme will occupy a site of approximately 1.4 ha (3.5 acres) and will provide 71 apartments which will be available for shared ownership or market rent. When complete, the development will provide the Beacon Centre with new charity headquarters incorporating:

• A state-of-the-art activity centre including craft and social rooms
• A fully equipped recreation hall and gym
• IT, Training and employment suites
• Talking newspaper studio and charity, retail and catering outlets

Both the new Beacon Centre and the accommodation will be ‘highly sustainable’ with a design which adopts all the latest best practice techniques and will achieve a rating of ‘Very Good’ in both BREEAM and Ecohome ratings – the industry standard for measuring sustainability in new buildings.