Harbonnieres Residential / Chartier/Dalix Architects

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Text description provided by the architects. This new residential care home in the heart of the Picardy countryside provides capacity for 36 disabled people in an extension of the existing Notre Dame care home.

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Concrete floors and supporting walls are left rough and covered with a slightly glossy varnish to create interplays of light and discreet reflections.

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The building is connected to the existing home, but faces in every direction thanks to a faceted facade system. The steel panel roof in the same colour as the concrete is offset by 45° from the flat surface and faces due south to accommodate solar panels. Where it joins the partition walls, it forms the up-and-down profile of the ridge tiling.

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Internally, a planted all-wood 300 m² patio adorned with a terrace and balcony radiates warmth and natural light to all the building’s accessways, which become living spaces in their own right.

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On the ground floor, the main entrance and tradesman’s entrance meet in the centre in the agora, a very large double-height space which is the heart of the project.

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The bedrooms are spacious. Access to them is discreet thanks to their two separate entrances, and windows offer generous views of the surrounding landscape. In the double bedrooms, the faceted layout gives each resident their own window, so they can enjoy their own version of the view. Care staff can move around more efficiently, via the enhanced corridors and walkways which are concentrated around the patio, creating intersecting internal views.

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Forming a buffer zone between the intimacy of the bedrooms and the common areas, the four day rooms, where group activities take place, face the outside of the building and are also connected to the patio. Together with the agora, they provide a link between the gardens and the centre of the home.  

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