Retirement Residence Kreuzlingen

0243Retirement Residence Kreuzlingen
Replacement construction of retirement flats

The elderly resi­dence and nurs­ing home, built by Antoniol & Huber in the 1970s, lies at the heart of Kreuzlingen, and capti­vates primarily by virtue of its strik­ing exposed concrete grid. The wing, how­ever, with its units for the elderly, no longer corres­ponds to current require­ments, and is to be replaced by a new building. The envi­si­oned exten­sion build­ing takes up the struc­ture and design of the exist­ing one and enga­ges in a dia­logue with it. Its place­ment along the edges of the par­cel and its angled form create a large, well-pro­por­tioned court­yard within.

An impor­tant aspect of the project is the exploi­ta­tion of the contras­ting quali­ties offered by the inner and outer sides of the build­ing. The exteriors are oriented entirely toward the surround­ings, allow­ing resi­dents on this bright and noisy side to share in life in Kreuzlingen. The inner court­yard, mean­while, offers oppor­tuni­ties for retreat. The two build­ings are linked together on all levels, ensur­ing optimal utiliza­tion of syner­gies between the nurs­ing home and the retire­ment resi­dence. Access to apart­ments is via a spa­cious zone of encoun­ter that lies along the court­yard side. Its glazed, openable facade makes it available year-round as a com­mon room, and it consti­tutes the heart of each level and of the build­ing as a whole. Resi­dents are to have the option of extend­ing their apart­ments into this space, thereby culti­vating a sense of community. Like the clois­ter of a monas­tery, this space will also be enhanced by an interior garden and will facili­tate visual contact between the old and new wings of the build­ing.

The load­bearing concrete supports in the facade are sup­ple­men­ted by prefab­ricated concrete ele­ments of the rail­ings, so that the facade is entirely in exposed con­crete, and hence merges con­vinc­ingly with the prede­ces­sor build­ing. In the apart­ments, the living and bed­rooms are orien­ted toward the out­side, toward the town, in order to encour­age contact between users and their environs. A narrow, continu­ous bal­cony fosters the active obser­va­tion of street life, and func­tions as an exten­sion of the resi­den­tial units.