This award-winning new healthcare complex provides 1,700 places for residential care, day training and vocational rehabilitation services to persons with disabilities or chronic mental illnesses. Built as part of an initiative to increase the supply of residential care places, the complex accommodates a population of 1,150 residents and 850 staff.
Redefining the idea of what a care home should be, the complex prioritises residents’ dignity and well-being through a human-centric design approach. The two-block design locates a low block and a high block, both four storeys tall, on the lower and higher elevations of the site. The roof of the low block forms an open landscaped garden that is accessible to and extended from the entrance level of the high block. The buildings’ footprints are also maximised, keeping staff and patient travel within the complex to a minimum, thus creating more time for important services and activities.
Large internal courtyards throughout ensure that daylight and natural ventilation reach the habitable spaces on all floors, bringing nature into the buildings. The courtyards also provide shade, well-supervised and readily-accessible outdoor activity areas, and leisure gardens close to common circulation areas and the ground floor dining, multi-purpose and social training rooms.
A human-centric approach was taken for the dormitories, with external views for all rooms, full-width windows, and sun shading features to reduce solar gain. The modular dormitory units also allow bed spaces to be allocated and adjusted easily, providing operators with flexibility and predictability when managing resident ratio changes.
The complex provides a variety of outdoor spaces, with open, intimate and stepped spaces available to all. There are also various themes for indoor and outdoor spaces to stimulate the residents’ senses – touch, colour, sound, aroma, and even a small farming area. Outdoor greenery and planters along indoor corridors provide natural areas for residents, visitors and staff to immerse themselves in and enjoy.
