Women's Resource Centre

The Nari Centre deserved more than beige walls. Able was appointed to deliver the technical design and construction stages of a refurbishment transforming an existing three-storey building into a fully accessible, multi-functional facility supporting community services for women across Tower Hamlets.

Challenges

The requirements went beyond a schedule of accommodation. A support space has to feel safe and welcoming from the moment someone walks in, and genuinely private where privacy matters. Meeting accessibility standards, coordinating new services through an existing structure and delivering to a fixed handover date all had to happen without losing sight of that.

Solution

Able delivered RIBA Stages 4 and 5, developing a fully coordinated technical design package for construction and supporting Bloom Construction through delivery on site.

The works covered new internal partitions and acoustic treatments, new ablution and WC facilities, replacement doors and ironmongery throughout, access control upgrades, new finishes, and new mechanical and electrical systems, with AV coordinated across all three levels.

Accessibility ran through the design rather than sitting alongside it. All doorsets were replaced, a new accessible WC was installed on Level 2, and windows in sensitive areas were obscured. Although the brief carried no formal acoustic requirement, we specified enhanced attenuation to the 1:1 support space, treating the walls, door and ventilation grilles, because a room used for confidential conversations needs to be genuinely private rather than nominally so.

The colour palette was chosen with the same intent: bright, warm and reassuring rather than institutional.