House for elderly people | Aires Mateus & Associados

The project is based on an attentive reading of the life in a very specific kind of community, a sort of a micro-society with its own rules. It is a program, somewhere between a hotel and a hospital. It seeks to understand and reflect on a combination of social and private spaces, answering the needs of a social community and its individuals. The project is so designed based on the relationships inside this society: secluded units combine into a unique body, whose design is expressive and clear. The reduced mobility of those who will live in the building suggests that any displacement should be an emotive and variable experience. The distance between the independent units is measured and drawn to turn the idea of path into life, and its time into form. The building naturally rises from the topography: it defines the open space, organizing the entire plot.