Specialized Alzheimer Center in Marseilles, France by Atelier Naom

Article source: Atelier Naom

The project is located near the Old-Age Residence of St-Tronc.

The site is served by public transport and a special transport service for disabled people is in charge of the day-to-day support of patients : families can thus entrust their loved ones to an adapted and specialized structure.

Image Courtesy © Atelier Naom

• Architects: Atelier Naom
• Project: Specialized Alzheimer Center
• Location: Saint-Tronc, Marseilles, France

Image Courtesy © Atelier Naom

The location of the building on the site was determined by exposure to the sun, wind, noise, and exterior views.

In the south, the garden slightly higher and the hedges plant naturally protect the building from the noise of the busy boulevard.

Deciduous vegetation of high stem (existing and preserved trees) and solar protections foreseen in the project will promote the natural clarity of the rooms thus also limiting heat inputs in the summer.

Image Courtesy © Atelier Naom

Image Courtesy © Atelier Naom

The Programme-

Cloakroom for residents
Common room for activities
Educational cooking
Therapeutic activities rooms (with modular partition)
Musicotherapy room
Care and beauty Salon
1 office
Staff rooms
with cloakroom & shower
Sanitary and technical facilities
Pedagogical garden

Image Courtesy © Atelier Naom

Image Courtesy © Atelier Naom

Architectural Design Opening & Kinesthesic experience

“To open” is to “give access” and to make “that which was closed no longer closed»: Isn’t it the characteristic of equipment devoted to welcoming patients and accompanying families?

That’s why we have made it our first line of work: Make this place an OPEN place!

This is reflected firstly by large bay windows which allow the light to circulate and the landscape to participate as an extension of the interior spaces.

Image Courtesy © Atelier Naom

Image Courtesy © Atelier Naom

Then, to connect the spaces between them without closing them, the organization of the functions was thought “in star” from the space of common life that we wanted central. It is in this space that the group animations and the meals are organized. The “small salons” are like extensions of the large room, allow patients to receive visits or to take advantage of the care or workshops proposed by the center (doctor, nurse, hairdresser, aesthetics, yoga, therapy , Etc.). The entrance-cloakroom or the terrace of the big living room are as functional and comfortable intermediate spaces.

Image Courtesy © Atelier Naom

Image Courtesy © Atelier Naom

This is reflected, finally, by the absence of partition and door in order that this space facilitates displacement and walk: An open space where you can easily progress; An open space where you can easily inspect ….

Thus, all the rooms accessible to patients are combined to finally create a large multipurpose space, taking advantage of visual and spatial extensions with various orientations and uses.

Image Courtesy © Atelier Naom

Image Courtesy © Atelier Naom

This organization allows a kinesthetic approach because the kinesthetic function is “a conscious perception of the position or movements of the different parts of the body”. It is a “deep sensitivity” to the dynamic movement of the body in space.

With disoriented people, this approach to architecture and volumes through the intuitive experience of the body seemed necessary to us. That’s why the architectural project was built around the interior planning and the relationship of the rooms with each other.

Image Courtesy © Atelier Naom

Image Courtesy © Atelier Naom

Thus the furniture, designed around this dialectic “of the sensitive path and the intuitive course”, structures space and offers, in addition to vast storage, an alternative to traditional partitioning. It invites to the walk while facilitating the supervision of the nursing staff.

Image Courtesy © Atelier Naom

Image Courtesy © Atelier Naom

The choice of wood architecture

Simultaneously strategic, ideological and aesthetic, the wood offered many advantages for the implementation of the project:

– The structure was prefabricated in the workshop and assembled in 8 days on site, thus limiting the nuisance for the neighborhood and in particular people of the old-age residence.
– Efficient and compact, without limiting the shape, the wood structure allowed to build an energy economical equipment with very low nuisances.
– Finally, its hearty aspect makes it a confortable and reassuring equipment, easily identifiable and not connoted to the “medical” or « geriatric” environment.

Image Courtesy © Atelier Naom

The project, whose sketch was started before the new thermal regulations, wanted from the beginning to be high-performance, without claiming any label. By ideology and common sense, it seemed obvious to us that to build a more sustainable construction, we had to plan the maintenance and the consumption of the building.

The project is thus a sustainable and innovative approach in order to offer to the neighborhood and to the city a small quality equipment, welcoming and comforting, for the sick ones and for their family. The challenge of this eco-responsible project resides as much in its environmental quality (in use and maintenance), as in the social undertaking of which it is the bearer.

Image Courtesy © Atelier Naom

Image Courtesy © Atelier Naom

Image Courtesy © Atelier Naom

Image Courtesy © Atelier Naom

Tags: France, Marseilles

Categories: Care Center, Health Center, House for disabled

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