This is the elderly care facility located in Shobara City, Hiroshima. All the time,the client hopes that this facility can be a wooden warmly house which familyand the surrounding residents can visit casually. There are many promenades,alleys and gardens opened to public inside this site. Separating buildings of 5 forspecial elderly nursing and short staying, 2 for day care, and 1 for administrationare constructed. In order to make staffs’ moving simply between buildings, thedesigner locates the administration building in the center of the site. Besides,the dinning area is located beside the north side road where carrying the foodingredients into the dinning area is very convenient.
The buildings for special elderly nursing and short staying occupy the biggest areaof the site. Three “co-units” are combined to make one “unit” in which 10 peoplecan live. Each “co-unit” is composed of a small living room and three or four roomswhich surround it. In addition, considering the need of night care, each two “units”are connected by service desk and kitchen and bathroom space. Besides, eachprivate room is divided into 2 areas, bedroom of 9 m² and multipurpose room of 6m². According to the investigation of the living habits of the surrounding residents,the bedroom is named “back room”, and the multipurpose room is named “roombetween spaces”.
The method of separating room between spaces from thetraditional bedroom space is figured out by the designer through the carefulinvestigation of the life habits of the surrounding residents. Thus the individualprivacy of the back room is improved and the open activity space is created,which maintain the diversity of the elderly people’s life and their communicationwith external environment. In addition, the characteristic of this project is that ifthe partition board between the rooms is open, the small unit can form a nursingenvironment which contains many beds. Therefore the staffs can see everything inside each room.
The buildings for special elderly nursing and short staying which are consisted ofprivate back rooms and open rooms between spaces make the elderly people andthe surrounding residents feel the family reunion atmosphere. The room betweenspaces can also be used as gallery space for the elderly people to have a rest,a space for entertaining the visitors and family reunion and so on. It can alsofunction as the entrance in Japanese traditional architecture. The comprehensivespace design and the considerate nursing service is a new attempt of the clients.
It is believed that in a near future, this project will be like the common residentialarea, blending into the surrounding environment and becoming a beautiful localscenery.
Team:
Architect: SUSUMU UNO／CAn・MET ARCHITECTS
Structural engineer: Fujio and associates
Mechanical and Electrical engineer: PES
Client: TOJO ARISUKAI social welfare corporation
Constructor: TODA CORPORATION Hiroshima Branch
