Alzheimer's Rehabilitation Centre

The aim of the comprehensive project is to design a public building that responds to the growing national and global social crisis, in a town where its influence is particularly alarming - economically, culturally and environmentally. Poverty, an aging population, the national healthcare crisis and the effects of COVID are all contributing factors to these issues, pressurising local communities in popular resort towns such as Weston-super-Mare. The scheme is developed based on the primer project and research on Weston, to propose a contextually sensitive architecture for the local community.

For the rehabilitation of local Alzheimer’s patients and families, the main objectives are to respect the architectural heritage of existing traditional buildings and use their language to design a medical building that best meets modern functional needs. As Frank Gehry said, ‘Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness’, there is a need for buildings to not only retain their traditional forms but assign new uses that benefit the users’ experience in the modern context of technological development.

The aim is to provide emotional support for local Alzheimer’s patients and their carers in Weston. The proposal seeks to vitalise the local village as a communal place to visit or stay in the long term, by offering spaces to socialise, exercise, and interact with nature to improve mental health. A sequence of private to communal spaces will encourage visitors to experience the comfort of being at ‘home’, while residents will be able to enjoy a more stimulating environment than within their private areas. Local construction methods and materials will be used, including recycled stones from derelict buildings in order to minimise carbon footprint. The proposal will be a mostly council-funded programme, which addresses the town’s need for healthcare support. To respond to the aim, the proposal incorporates different methods to address the emotional and physical needs of Alzheimer’s patients, derived from precedents and research. Spatial features inspired by Victorian villas, such as modern interpretations of bay windows, incorporation of arches, blurred boundaries between indoors and outdoors, and open plan spaces contribute to the design of a nostalgic architecture that helps patients to momentarily revive their memories and delay the progression of the disease.

The building will be reminiscent of the 1950s seaside in the UK, during the most memorable period of time in childhood for elderly people with Alzheimer’s today. The use of traditional building features with a modern twist evokes a sense of homeliness and familiarity from the past, as with the natural features such as gardens and water that stimulate the senses.