The new building for the residential care centre at Parkhof replaces an existing elderly home consisting of two parts, one from the 1960s and the other from the 1990s. Neither building meets present-day standards and expectations. The earlier building has been demolished. The more recent structure, the "Q-building" will be refurbished and used as an office building for the client, the social services agency of Machelen (OCMW).
location: Machelen (BE)
design: 2011-2013
realisation: 2014- 2017 in two phases
competition: Open Oproep 2104, in collaboration with Hildundk, Munich
client: OCMW Machelen
structural engineer: ABT Antwerpen
advisor - technical installations: Ingenium Brugge
visual artist : Rudy Luijters
garden architect, landscape: Atelier Arne Deruyter
photography: Luuk Kramer, Maurice Tjon
The new care home for the elderly has been organised around a spacious courtyard. This courtyard is surrounded by a wide, covered gallery referring to the cloisters of medieval monasteries. Both garden and gallery create an important living space for the residents. The specific layout of the garden and the planting hold both a recreational and therapeutic significance.
From the main entrance, one overlooks the inner garden. The front doors to the living units are situated in the corners of the gallery surrounding the garden. Four "real' front doors lead to the residential first and second floors.
On the ground floor all public spaces and the daycare centre are organised around the courtyard. The offices and the large kitchen face the outside to provide a pleasant working environment for all staff with generous views over the surrounding parkland.
The service centre is located next to the main entrance and consists of several multipurpose rooms that can be subdivided. The social restaurant is connected to the "dorpsplein". We interpreted the metaphorical "village square" stipulated in the programme of requirements literally: we create a new square with terrace open to the public and all visitors of the village park.
The layout, programming and planting of the enclosed garden has been regarded as an applied art work and has been developed in collaboration with the artist Rudy Luijters and the garden architect Arne Deruyter. The planting refers to the traditional utilitarian gardens of the region. Specifically designated plots will be cared for as allotment gardens by residents of the neighbourhood. The unconventional approach helps us to realise a rich, healthy and natural living environment for its sensitive inhabitants; a true "healing environment" in the holistic sense, combining natural, social and spatial qualities.
The 105 rooms in total are subdivided into smaller living groups consisting of 15 inhabitants each. On the first floor, 60 rooms are divided among four "houses". Each house is directly accessible from the outside via elevators installed in the four corners of the plan. The corridors are short and wide and have views to the outside. Each house has a service core and an access core, a spacious dining room and a lounge with a balcony overlooking the courtyard, and a more private salon and lounge with a balcony overlooking the park. The residents on the first floor can easily use the public outside areas and facilities on the ground floor. The first floor is functionally self-sufficient but benefits from easy access to supplementary recreational spaces on the ground floor.
The second floor houses 45 rooms and has been conceived for inhabitants suffering from dementia. The division of units into the various houses is flexible here and the layout allows for a multitude of different clustering opportunities. The various public spaces on this floor are suitable for different uses. The large terraces contribute to a complete, versatile living environment and compensate for the distance to the garden.
