A new headquarters for Ryedale Special Families
LABC Regional Winner 2026 · Best Public or Community Building
An award-winning community building in Pickering, North Yorkshire, designed by Design 4 Architecture and built by R&J from groundworks to completion.
Ryedale Special Families supports local families who have disabled children, offering social care, specialist education, life skills, a youth group and support for parents and carers. Their new purpose-built, fully accessible centre in Pickering was designed by Design 4 Architecture and built by R&J from groundworks to completion, on what had been an empty field.
Read about the new building on the Ryedale Special Families website ↗
- Client
- Ryedale Special Families
- Project
- New-build headquarters and community building
- Location
- Pickering, North Yorkshire
- Architect
- Design 4 Architecture Ltd
- Building control
- North Yorkshire Council
- Award
- LABC Yorkshire Regional Winner 2026, Best Public or Community Building
The brief
The charity needed a fully accessible home for all of its services under one roof: a large room for group activities and staff training, a four-station accessible kitchen for cooking and life skills, three individual care rooms, two sensory rooms (one calming, one stimulating), a music room, meeting rooms and offices, accessible toilets including two Changing Places facilities, and an education and skills centre for disabled young adults. Outside, it needed a large safe area, accessible parking and landscaped grounds.
The build
R&J built the centre from groundworks to completion, working with Design 4 Architecture and North Yorkshire Council's building control team. The building has a climate-friendly specification, with highly insulated construction, an air source heat pump and solar panels, and the external works included the parking, safe outdoor area and landscaping. The centre is now open and supporting families across Ryedale.
The award
In 2026 the building was named Best Public or Community Building in the Yorkshire region of the LABC Building Excellence Awards, recognising "building excellence in the delivery of outstanding construction and workmanship". The awards are judged by the local authority building control surveyors who inspect projects on site.
From an empty field to a finished building
Ryedale Special Families started with an empty field in Pickering. These two photos show the site during groundworks and the finished headquarters with its covered entrance and new car park.
This new building was a huge undertaking for our charity and we needed a lot of contact with R & J Construction throughout the project. We had regular meetings, regular conversations and they were responsive and flexible to meet our needs. Our new building is amazing and a very high standard, we are delighted with the outcome.
About projects like this
If your question isn't here, get in touch.
Do you build community and commercial buildings?
Yes. Alongside homes, we build community and small commercial buildings for local organisations, such as this award-winning headquarters for Ryedale Special Families. We focus on modest-sized projects where we can give every job our full attention.
Can you work with our own architect?
Yes. Most of our projects are designed by independent architects. On this project we worked alongside Design 4 Architecture, and we're equally happy to recommend architects and engineers we know well if you don't have them yet.
Planning something similar?
Talk to us about your project. You'll have one point of contact, from the first visit to the completion certificate.