Frequently Asked Questions

Carless + Adams is an independently owned architectural practice that focusses designing integrated retirement communities, supported living and care accommodation. We work from design RIBA stage 0 right the way through covering all technical design elements to RIBA stage 7.

Care is a broad term and whilst we focus on elderly care there are so many cross overs in the industry. Due to the complexity of designing for care we have also been involved in designing for adults with mental health conditions, nurseries (often onsite with elderly care for the health benefits for intergenerational living) and children’s homes. Care is a niche market and cannot be designed for in a similar vein to residential or retail or business. Consideration needs to be given to so many other factors and our architects and technicians have had training and have vast experience in this field.

Each design is unique to the client or contractor. We don’t have an “out of the box” design as each concept is unique and influenced by requirements, topography, local environment, needs analysis plus many other factors. Carless + Adams prides ourself on being able to push design boundaries while considering the needs of residents, their visiting families and care givers.

Both. The project design completely depends on the client requirements. Obviously if it is land that this will be a new build, however if it is an existing building we will assess whether the requirements can take a retrofit or, if the needs to fit with building criteria is too great, we may suggest demolishing and restarting from scratch. We often aim to retrofit projects where possible as we have such wonderful architecture through the times in the UK it’s an aim to retain it. We often have extensions to existing building and the blend of modern architecture with older is striking.

In short, because we care about people. We design with our Mums and Dads in mind. Where would we like our dearest to live? What would they want to enhance their lives and ambitions? How can we design sustainably and for the long-term future?

Carless + Adams has built our business on a simple and passionately held belief that by focusing on the creation of the highest quality supported living and care accommodation in the UK, we can help residents and carers to live their best possible lives. Care should be a choice to enhance your life, not a last-minute decision forced by ill health or necessity. There are too many elderly living in isolated, inadequate housing that is detrimental to their health and lives.

One day we aim to reach the grand old retirement age and hope that there will be appropriate accommodation out there for us to move into.

To design and obtaining planning permission to residents moving in can take anything from 5 to 8 years. Yes, that’s a lot of planning which is why we design for longevity and ensure we focus on any new technology or facilities so that they can be incorporated.

No, we work across the whole sector from private to public sector from small to large – care doesn’t discriminate so why would we?

Think about your home. How does it make you feel? Hopefully safe, secure and comfortable. Care needs to be the same – it’s somebody’s home too. Your environment can affect how you feel and this does not change as you age. So yes they do care about how their care home looks!

We work with clients across the whole of the UK from north to south, east to west! Care is something that is not regionalised and so neither are we.

Our team use a variety of software platforms including Revit, AutoCad, Enscape, SketchUP, Lumion and Adobe Indesign/Photoshop. We are continuously training through CDPs to maintain our RIBA accreditation and ensure our technology is on top performance.

There are 24 team members in house with a mix of Architects and Technicians meaning we can design every RIBA stage from 0-7.

We are literally at the bottom of junction 7 of the M4 in Slough, Berkshire and a short walk from Burnham train station.