LAVA Architecten built the residential center 'De Parel' for Apojo in Aarschot, where 24 people in need of care will find a new home. The new residential facility was built in function of four community groups of six residents. In the design, LAVA Architecten focuses on homeliness on the scale of the individual: if the community is the village, then the different studios are the houses in that small community, the living space is the village square, and the patios are the gardens. 

A “building block” composition
In De Parel, every person in need of care has his own studio, which he can easily recognise thanks to its unique orientation and position. Moreover, each resident can create his or her own little home. This is the primary building block for the entire complex. With the lifts, the entrance halls, the spaces that provide circulation within the building and the sanitary facilities, they laid down the second building block: these functional spaces are in separate building volumes. LAVA Architecten brought the residential complex for each community to life through a conscious composition of the two building blocks. The spaces created between the different volumes form the living areas, bathrooms, and kitchens of the residential unit.

A bright composition
The patios and the design ensure that every resident of De Parel enjoys a great deal of light and aeriation, and there is also an outside view from every 'house'. In addition, the layout of the building and the recesses in the building volume create an arsenal of outdoor spaces with different purposes.