117 Care home Grono L.pdf - Sergison Bates architects

In the lightly populated area such as
the Graubünden mountains, a single
elderly care home often serves several
communities or a whole valley and the
care home’s public character therefore is
correspondingly important. However it is
also important to establish a clear private
territory for the residents to occupy, far
enough away from the public entrance
and public activities. The design therefore
proposes a primary building form of
stature, set back from the street frontage
with a smaller scale annex serving as an
entrance porch with public living room
and chapel, on the roadside. This annex
also serves to connect together the new
building with the Casa di Cura to form
a cluster of volumes arranged around
a small garden. The most identifiable
element of the building form is the
stepped set backs and projections along
the long facades. These form projecting
windows which provide an individual view
for each room in the building towards the
mountain landscape. The orientation of
these projections ensure that windows
are shaded from southerly sun and yet
each room has a sunny aspect (facing
either southeast or southwest). At a
compositional level the set back provide
the necessary articulation to reduce the
scale of the building and at a social level
they indicate the individual within the
whole – a communal building of individual
parts.
The Care Home is organised in two new
buildings which adjoin the existing Casa
di Cura making up the third volume of this
settlement. The main building consists of
six floors and a basement with individual
group clusters being located on the four
upper floors, Dayrooms and Dementia
group room on the upper ground floor,
staff and therapy rooms on the lower
ground floor and kitchen and technical
rooms in the basement. The social
benefits of each group occupying a floor
as a commune are matched by ensuring
that there is an ease of management
and supervision for staff and carers.
Treatment rooms form part of each
commune and the second stair doubles
up as both fire escape and day-to-day
shortcut for nursing staff. The annex
located facing the street contains the
chapel at lower ground floor level and
the public living room/cafeteria/multifunctional
room on the upper ground
entrance level. All habitable rooms
have a view towards the garden in the
foreground and mountains and valley
in the background and all face either
south-east or south-west. The circulation
spaces vary in width and are primarily
used as useable spaces with furniture
arranged to facilitate informal gatherings,
quiet sitting or group activities.
Sergison Bates architects
The building is constructed as a concrete
flat slab structure with fin columns at the
slab edge and a single line of fin columns
(embedded within internal walls) in the
middle of the plan. Loads are transferred
to the columns and sheer walls at stair
cores provide stiffness. The façade is
of precast concrete pieces forming an
interlocking assembly and a tectonic that
resembles the nearby stone walls that
retain the mountain landscape along the
roadside behind the site. The concrete is
made from white cement with recycled
glass as an aggregate which gives a
varied shimmering effect to the wall
surface under different light conditions.
At low level the surface of the concrete
is polished to give a very smooth finish
and in the higher parts of the façade the
aggregate is left exposed with a rough
surface texture. The prefabricated
façade forms large structural openings
which allow the interior to be filled with
light and window assemblies comprise
timber panels below the triple glazed
window and timber panelled shutters
to one side providing background
ventilation.
A primary concern of the design has
been to reduce the perception of the
building as an institution and emphasise
a home-like atmosphere. The Floor plate
is therefore reduced to ensure that from
within connection to the outside and the
size of interior spaces resemble those
found in a large family house. Each group
of ten bedrooms occupies a floor and
is organised as a commune with a wide
gallery connecting the stair and lift and
the communal living room. Hallways
to individual rooms are shared thus
reducing the number of doors visible from
the gallery and further emphasising the
feeling of a domestic scale and a sense
of being part of a large family.
The essential qualities brought to the
design of residents rooms: of a view
out to landscape, close proximity to a
communal living room, a sense of being
part of a large family, are complimented
by ideas of furnishings and fittings.
An impression of feeling at home is
intended through the use of elements
which residents may recognise from their
own lives in the surrounding villages;
Larch timber wall panelling, decorative
wallpaper, ceramic tiling, parquet flooring
and furniture brought from home. The
ceiling-high windows give views out
to the garden and mountains from bed
and provide an alcove in which to sit
in an armchair. Together they create a
comfortable, homely atmosphere and a
close connection to nature and society.
Client: Opera Mater Christi