For the Casa Ella Residence, PINEARQ proposes a model that seeks to open the residences to their surroundings and reinforce their social dimension: a domestic community that participates in shaping the life around it, supported by nursing care services.
The building, constructed with recycled, recoverable or recyclable materials — wood for the structure and roof, linoleum for the floors —, stands out for its public space, defined by a taller building partially located above the day centre and integrated into a broader urban circuit, connected by pedestrian paths and equipped areas.
Casa Ella Nursing Home by PINEARQ. Photograph by Oliver Jaist.
Project description by PINEARQ
Ella nursing home is located between Bressanone and Varna, in northern Italy, to serve these cities and Luson (16 km to the northeast). The residence aims to achieve sustainable development in five different and complementary areas: from ensuring comfort and low impact on the built and natural environment (environmental sustainability) and efficiency in mechanical and electrical systems (energy sustainability) to social, management and economic sustainability.
The residence is located in a residential area characterised by low-rise buildings. The proposal is structured as a neighbourhood of low-rise buildings that create courtyards between them. The central square provides access to the residence's day centre, with the intention of establishing close relationships with the residents of the neighbourhood, so that opportunities for interaction with the users of the residential complex can be created. The square is also defined by a multi-storey building, which is partially above the day centre, which includes housing for self-sufficient elderly people.
The transition between the urban and agricultural dimensions is achieved through an articulated system of open spaces which, like a permeable membrane, envelops the entire complex. The landscape design deliberately reproduces the pattern of the surrounding apple orchards, a distinctive feature of the Isarco Valley landscape, integrating it with footpaths and equipped areas that form part of a wider urban circuit. It is not a boundary, but an osmotic space where the residence dialogues with the city through a sequence of themed gardens and common areas.
The project also responds to the guidelines of German architectural principles for residences, which indicate the need to reconcile private life with the social sphere.
Fifth Generation Residences
The project responds to the guidelines of the architectural principles of the KDA (Kuratorium Deutsche Antershilfe), the German model for fifth-generation residences for the elderly, which is based on three fundamentals: life in privacy, life in community, and life in society.
The basic idea is to create a domestic community, with the care and support of a nursing service, that allows people to experience security and normality. This type of building makes it possible to create separate areas to quickly and easily isolate patients who are ill due to a pandemic.
Sustainability
The KDA principles translate into ensuring person-centred care, meaningful community life, and urban integration with continuity between the interior and exterior, strategies that seek to enhance individuality, but also openness to a wider community.
The building is eligible for the CasaClima Nature seal, the Italian sustainability certification for buildings that reduce their negative impact on the environment while improving people's health and well-being.
The mountainous context has also influenced construction and material choices. The tallest building, which houses apartments for self-sufficient seniors and is partially located above the day centre, interacts with the neighbouring hospital complex, providing visual and acoustic protection for the square and the lower buildings.
Materials with a high percentage of recycled, recoverable or recyclable components have been used in the construction of the residence, such as wood for the interior partition structure, linoleum flooring, wooden roof structure, ceramics and bricks, false ceilings, etc. In total, the project uses 6,822 tonnes of recycled materials, 21% of the total material used in the construction.
