Woonzorgcentrum Kapelleveld

For Sint-Katherina-Lombeek, a subdistrict of Ternat, architecten devylder vinck taillieu designed a residential care centre that includes flats for assisted living. In order to fit the project into the relatively small site and to rejuvenate the typology of the traditional rest home, the architects introduced a building that fans out into the landscape. Its six wings contain 41 homes for assisted living and 57 care rooms. The staggering of the plan offers certain advantages. The long hospital corridor, which is typical of this type of programme, is replaced by a series of stepped spaces forming small lobbies, each providing access to two flats. In the flats themselves, the measured layout makes for a spacious feel. The firm opted for a low building that matches the scale of the village centre. This principle is emphasised by the elegant and slender overhanging roofs: they enable the building to merge into the landscape and give it a unique spatial atmosphere. By setting some of the lines of the roof ridges at an angle to the floor slabs as they fan outwards, an interplay of lines is created on the inside, reinforced by the pattern of the ceiling lighting. The building brings dynamism to a place that is unable to avoid the stigma of its association with the final stage of life. The subtlety of architecten de vylder vinck taillieu’s design lies in the deployment of a number of principles which are then mirrored, shifted or used in an alternative way. This creates appealing nuances, enhanced by the custom-designed furnishings, the unusual choice of materials and an eye for detail.

- Véronique Patteeuw

This project is published in Architectural Review Flanders N°13. This Is a Mustard Factory