MAK architecture

Description

The new Retirement and Care Centre in Orbe offers 84 beds, common rooms, a cafeteria, lounges, a dining room, a gymnasium, a professional kitchen and rooms for care and treatments. The project reacts to the neighbouring Château de Montchoisi through urbanistic as well as architectural features. It interprets certain aspects of the Château, such as its volumetric composition and its characteristic courtyard. From this follows a clear proposal for the exterior spaces of the new Care Centre, with careful landscaping on the periphery and an enclosed garden, the Garden of Life, in the centre of the composition. The entrance forecourt to the north places the project in visual relationship with the Château, signalling the intentional dialogue between these two buildings. The project extends over four floors, with a spacious public ground floor housing the main entrance and service access. The corridors on the upper floors expand to create living and dining zones for the various units as well as large lounges that complement the generously sized bedrooms. The view of the central courtyard garden and the movement around it form the heart of the new Care Centre. Circulation through the complex thus combines visual connections between patients with efficiency in terms of service and maintenance.