Alice Green recently joined Box as Health Lead and wasted no time by immediately joining designers from across the world taking part in the Dutch international healthcare competition.
Redevelop focused on creating new ideas for the Stichting Dichterbij, Velp. The brief was to create an “innovative concept that offers space for living, day care activities and leisure that fits the needs of its clients and employees,” It also asked that architcts’ plans extend further and include the community of Velp, so that they stimulated social integration between the residents of the care village and the inhabitants of Velp.
Box’s site plan submission was based upon creating a hive of activity for the care home clients and Velp’s local citizens. The contemporarily designed facilities could be shared for interactive courses such as cookery classes and arts and crafts internally, extending to nature trails externally.
Using warm timber as a material in the structure, coupled with a sedum roof would help to exude a natural and welcoming ambiance for users of the shared space, which also proposes a library with an interconnected advice centre. The creation of the main shared hub would be ideal for larger events involving the wider community, balanced by the smaller scale residential units, offering individuals privacy. The design also allowed for digital communications to link each individual space.
Phidias Community Cooking who launched the international competition, praised Box Architects’ design and our idea to create a Village site App , “I think the app and the functions are a good idea to make the connection. Usage of materials and attention to the diversity of different functions is appealing.” Box saw the App as a way of encouraging the local community to share and communicate.
Alice said about the project “we are interested in the concept of empowering users to become more independent through self-care. The appealing and accessible leisure and educational support facilities widen the users daily activities and support network. They also encourage families and the local community to visit the new care village on a more regular basis and become involved in the activities as part of a community”
