Sergison Bates architects

118 Care home, Visp, Switzerland

Client Stiftung Martinsheim Visp

Competition 2009
Gross internal area: 4060 m2

Care home with forty rooms and support

rooms. The new building forms an annex
with the existing care home, connected
by a shared space between and an
underground link.

SECOND PRIZE

1 Building across meadow

2 Massing model showing new and
existing care homes

2
Sergison Bates architects
 1

647.00

5.3
20m2
5.4
20m2 647.00

5.5
20m2
647.00
4.1
66m2

6.3

7.3 6.2
A

5.6
20m2

7.1
7.2

5.1
20m2 3.3
6m2

3.2
10m2

5.2
40m2

3.1
60m2

1 View of covered link between buildings

2 Ground plan

2
Sergison Bates architects
 1.4
1.2 15m2 1
1.1
30m2

1.6
15m2

1.5
30m2

6.3
1.3
35m2
6.2
1.2

1.1
30m2

1.1
30m2 1.2
50m2

1 Typical floor plan showing room clusters

and shared common spaces

Sergison Bates architects

 1

+15.000 (Oberkante Dach, Erweiterungsbau)

+14.500 (Oberkante Dach, Hauptgebäude)

+12.100 (4. Obergeschoss)

+11.000 (Oberkante Dach, Nebengebäude)

+9.200 (3. Obergeschoss)

+6.300 (2. Obergeschoss)

+3.400 (1. Obergeschoss)

+0.000 = +647.00 (Erdgeschoss)

2
-3.300 (Untergeschoss)

section_AA
1 Ground floor common room with fire place
2 Section showing undergorund link
between buildings

Sergison Bates architects

Our proposal is to house the new care
home facilities in a separate building
adjacent to the existing Martinsheim. This
strategy reinforces the urban character
of the immediate neighbourhood which
is characterised by stand-alone building
forms making up a modest urban
setting of streets, gardens, passages
and buildings. The spatial proximity
established between the two associated
care home buildings allows for easy
day-to-day connection and accessibility
at ground level and at basement level.
The space between the two buildings is
transformed to become a shared space
that functions in a similar manner to an
open-ended court in which both residents
of the Care home and local people may
pass through. Alongside the building on
the south and west sides is a garden
with pathway, places to sit and areas for
growing vegetables and fruit.
The form of the new building has
evolved from a combination of a
careful adjustment in response to the
various boundary conditions and the
internal organisation strategy of placing
orthogonal shaped rooms around the
outside wall surfaces with a more organic
and free-flowing space between. The
consequence of this strategy is of an
articulated volume of various sides which
has the spatial effect of reducing the
scale of the building.
The Care Home is organised on four
upper floors for the use of individual
residents and on ground and basement
which are more public and communal
in character. Each of the upper floors
is conceived as having a degree of
self-sufficiency from the rest of the
building with staff, cleaning, bathing and
communal spaces serving a cluster of
ten rooms. The social benefits of each
group occupying a floor as a commune
are matched by ensuring that there is an
ease of management and supervision for
staff and carers. An open stair provides
a spatial connection between floors
and a second stair doubles up as both
fire escape and day-to-day shortcut for
nursing staff.
The ground floor contains the more
communal activities of meeting/common
room, pedicure and hair salon together
with the centralised provision of therapy
rooms and the Doctor’s office. Visitors
enter a central open space (from the
garden/car park or from the main
entrance opposite the existing building)
with views out in each direction and a
visible connection to the double height
void above the basement hall from which
direct and internal connection is made to
the Martinsheim building.
Sergison Bates architects
To provide a climate controlled and the more coarse outer surface of the
internal connection between buildings building. Windows and balconies face
a link is provided which connects the north, west and east with long views to
primary stair and lift cores of each the surrounding mountain landscape.
building. From the large hall, lit from high The orientation of the rooms therefore
level sidelight, in the new building a wide means that all rooms are shaded from the
gallery leads to the existing building. southerly sun and yet each room has a
A window to the side opens into the sunny aspect.
existing lower yard area and the stair can
be seen through a new glazed screen.
From this point access by lift or stair can
be given to the main dining room and
other shared facilities provided in the
Martinsheim.
A number of new spaces are made
around the building which reinforce the
relationship between the new building
and the urban context and ensure an
active and safe connection with the
existing building. Like other buildings in
the neighbourhood a garden is situated
around the new building behind which
is placed the parking area. Access to
parking utilises an existing access road
to the north of the site with a visitor
drop-off area provided adjacent to the
entrance porch. On the western side the
building is set back at ground floor level
to create a covered area for sitting with
close proximity to the garden. The garden
is conceived as a place for walking and
sitting with friends and family and also as
a kitchen garden with spaces for growing
vegetables and fruit. These garden
spaces are positioned so that they can
be viewed from the inside, in particular
from the communal living room. The site
is bordered with a hedge that provides a
structured backdrop for the foreground
view and to the longer view towards the
mountains and sky.
The building is constructed as a concrete
flat slab structure with fin columns at the
slab edge and a single line of internal
columns in the middle of the plan (which
are embedded in internal walls on the
upper floors). Loads are transferred
to the columns and sheer walls at the
stair and lift cores provide stiffness. The
light coloured façade is of rough cast
insulated render using recycled crushed
glass as an aggregate which gives a
varied shimmering effect to the wall
surface under different light conditions.
At low level a precast concrete plinth
forms a defined base but one which
varies in height around the building.
The important design feature of the
building is the large recessed window
and balcony provided for each of the
residents’ rooms. They appear as if
carved out of a solid cuboid form and the
opaque white paint on the smooth funnel-
shaped window reveals accentuates the
contrast between these more private
and personally inhabited spaces with
Client: Stiftung Martinsheim Visp