erwachsen

We are facing a strongly increasing number of elderly people in european cities.
To accommodate all of them we need economic and ecological living space, to save our climate and social environment. By placing an social housing unit for all elderly people on top of an existing retierement home a robust synthesis could take place.
Located in a northern district of Munich, the retierement home was build in the mid 1970’s to accommodate elderly people in a luxurious setting, known as senior residence. With the help of the light and precise building material wood as beams and CLT-ceilings a open grid is placed on the exisiting structure to extend the building in the sky. Due to a massive load reserve of the old concrete structure the extension of eleven new floors is possible.
The open construction is articulated by flexible private rooms and fluid community kitchens. The resident rooms feature a high flexibility due to the increasing space needed in old age. Thus the elderly can stay in their well-known surrounding with serveral options to open up to the community or to adjourn to their private space.
The robust CLT-grid allows different living models. From spacious and more intimate apartments to open community living structures. Even ambulatory care flats and dementia assisted communities are possible within this grid. Combining existing facilities of retirement homes with a new way of elderly living is a well sufficient and sustainable way of dealing with the upcoming significant number of seniors.
Text von Vincent Schmitt.