Sheltered, defined yards

This project involved work on an institutional building with a single large dining room/activity space with bedrooms stacked along corridors through the rest of the building. The aim  was to create a separate area for day programs (that would also be open to visitors) and clusters of bedrooms, each with their own dedicated living/dining space. There was also a sense in which the gardens seemed disconnected from one another.

DESIGN IDEA:  Treat corridors as streets with varying widths that can accommodate both organised activities and smaller socialising in pockets of space. Support activities in corridors by opening some areas onto outdoor space, having paths lead to external areas and providing a range of places to sit that break down a journey. Paths should be visible from key staff points and each sitting place should have some form of view of a common room or other main area to provide orientation.

PROJECT: The space shown above was the courtyard outside the day program area. The courtyard space was expanded, shade was added and the planting aroudn the edge was used to create a defined space. The ramp shown led around the building to allow the pathway to link a series of other courtayards and garden spaces. The plan below shows the a proposed additional living space that was located as the focus of a cluster of bedrooms and designed to create another contained yard.