Description

After the successful completion of the Competence Centre for People with Dementia, which opened in 2006 in Nuremberg and was the first of its kind in Germany, a similar optimised concept for a Competence Centre for Counselling, Residence and Care was developed and realised in 2014 in Forchheim in Upper Franconia. A single complex unites the functions of living, care and commerce and incorporates care for the elderly into a residential neighbourhood adjoining the town centre.

The entrance to the complex from the street is formed by two mixed-use buildings containing 22 barrier-free apartments for elderly people who can mostly live independently, along with eight units for shops, doctors’ surgeries and counselling centres. The apartment floor plans are designed for flexibility and allow residents to adapt them to their needs and ways of living. The white-rendered buildings with tiled, pitched roofs adopt the architectural language of the surrounding residential neighbourhood.

Behind the mixed-use buildings is a three-storey inpatient nursing home for people with dementia. The building is divided into three connected cubic volumes arranged around a communal courtyard. Adjoining the middle pavilion is a light-filled central “patio”.

The nursing home houses a total of eight family-like shared apartments with twelve residents each. On the ground floor are two enclosed living areas with direct access to the two sheltered gardens, designed to allow freedom of movement while ensuring safety and security. On the upper floors of each block are three shared apartments with spacious balconies.

The shared apartments are specially conceived for the needs of people with dementia and take into account the different phases of the illness. At the centre of each apartment is a communal living and dining area with an open kitchen that forms the main living area and communicative space. There are both single and two-person rooms, which can be additionally furnished with the residents’ own furniture and personal items. Each apartment has its own style of furnishing with different atmospheres and colour schemes to provide orientation and enhance a sense of familiarity and recognition. The design picks up thematic elements from the region such as woods, rivers and urban motifs.

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Originally published in: Eckhard Feddersen, Insa Lüdtke, Living for the Elderly: A Design Manual, second and revised edition, Birkhäuser, 2017.