Small-scale care homes

  • Project:

    Zorgwonen de Parel

  • Client:

    Apojo vzw

  • Projectcode:

    1112HEH

  • Designer:

    LAVA architecten

  • Site:

    Herseltsesteenweg, Aarschot

  • Structural engineering:

    AB Associates

  • Technical systems:

    AA&O

  • Photographer:

    Tim Van de Velde

De Parel provides a warm and safe home for 24 care-dependent individuals with mental and/or physical disabilities. The design reflects the vision of small-scale living, placing the individual resident at the center. The focus is not on limitations but on what each person is still able to do. De Parel consists of four living groups and combines warm care, personal autonomy, and a sense of community in a harmonious living environment.

The residents’ studios are designed as small houses—the primary building blocks of the whole. Each house has its own orientation and position, allowing every resident to recognize and personalize their unique home. In addition to the individual homes, secondary building blocks provide functional spaces such as elevators, staircases, entrance halls, and shared sanitary facilities.

The design is the result of a co-creative process in which the client and designers worked together to create a spatial arrangement of various building blocks around a central outdoor space. The in-between spaces, the “white spaces” in the arrangement, form the shared living areas, weaving between the connected building blocks.

With its playful, irregular shape and carefully planned cutouts, the building offers a rich variety of outdoor spaces with different functions. This approach ensures that every resident can enjoy light, fresh air, and pleasant views. From each house, there is always a connection to the outside world—a window to the world that provides residents with a sense of freedom and engagement.

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