Tønsberg Alzheimers Centre

Arranged around a series of courtyards, the nursing home becomes not only a protected environment for its residents but also an active place for the citizens of the local community that encourages interaction between generations. The common houses are located around the main courtyard, creating the notion of a small town square.

By spitting the volume up into smaller units, and maintaining a height of two stories, we create a complex with a human scale, which together with differentiating the buildings in colour and shape, significantly helps wayfinding for people with cognitive disabilities.

All the housing units have outdoor access connected to their common spaces, and the layout is developed with a focus on dementia, where all the resident’s rooms face the common rooms rather than a corridor. All circulation spaces are thought of as loops of various sizes, to enable physical movement without getting lost of running into a dead-end.

The two clusters share common- and service functions and are connected at two levels to create the logistic functionality of one building. The building volume makes perfect conditions for the use of prefabricated CLT-elements.