Nuno Piedade Alexandre has recently completed an Elderly Care Center in Portugal’s Ponte de Sor. The design team was commissioned to design a building in connection with the existing complex, providing the much needed extra bedrooms while ensuring the well-being of the patients as a priority. The resulting program includes ten double rooms and four individual rooms, all equipped with private facilities.
The proposed volume grows from the use of the available area of the plot, and from the necessity of the connection to the existing building. The concept is based on this principal and in the search for a very particular experience mainly focused on its users.
The volume dematerializes itself through the projection of the rooms outwards, distorting the main facade in the search for a special sculptural moment that can speak for itself and be kind of singular, also in the way that every patient should be. The internal rooms aim to capture as much of the outdoor landscape as possible, therefore, the protrusions on the façade are designed to large dimensions (3.5/4.5m) in order to bring in vast amounts of daylight.
The geometric complexity that therefore results defines and marks the image of the building. The scale also aims to establish a relationship with the surrounding trees and create a distinction within the urban landscape. The concept results in a functional program that prioritizes the needs of the users.
