ARCHITECT: Anshen & Allen Architects, San Francisco
CLIENT: Hospice of the Central Coast
CONSTRUCTION: Reinforced concrete, masonry, wood, steel
COMPLETED: 1994
INPATIENT BEDS: 28
SITE/PARKING: 4.4 acres/38
This twenty-eight-bed hospice, located two hours south of San Francisco along the Big Sur coast, opened in 1994. Situated in a tranquil forest setting, this hospice evokes a non-institutional, res- idential atmosphere. The inpatient bedrooms are configured as two clusters. This configuration affords privacy for patients and their families, operational and staffing efficiencies, and direct con- nections with adjacent outdoor spaces. The various massing and roof configurations make it appear as a collection of small, inter- connected structures (Fig. 5.9.1). Large windows and vaulted ceil- ings are present throughout, and natural landscaping connects the building with a wooded area. Once again, the dreary institu- tionalism of long, unbroken hospital corridors is eschewed (Fig. 5.9.2). The parking area is subdivided into three clusters. Within the hospice, transparency is achieved through the use of large expanses of glass and connecting circulation links, which set the programmatic elements apart from one another. Several day- rooms are for use by inpatients and families. One wing contains sixteen beds, a second wing contains twelve beds.
Inpatient bedrooms are set back from one another, and each opens onto a private outdoor patio. The bath/shower room is on the inner corridor side of each inpatient room. Entrances to the inpatient rooms are similarly staggered. The nurses’ station is located at the center, with staff support space and a dayroom at the end of the hall. The circulation arteries form a circular, or race- track, pattern (Fig. 5.9.3). Administrative offices and counseling spaces are situated between the two residential wings and adja- cent to the kitchen and dining areas. A meditation room is situ- ated near to the main entrance. Daylight penetrates this space sparingly, and floor mats are provided at the center of the room (Fig. 5.9.4). The living rooms have vaulted ceilings with skylights (Fig. 5.9.5). The inpatient bedrooms have residential furnishings, a fold-out bed for family use, and glass doors opening to the aforementioned patios. The vaulted ceiling allows for a variety of lighting effects (Fig. 5.9.6).
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5.9.1 Hospice of the Central Coast, Monterey, California, blends in harmoniously with its wooded site environs
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5.9.3 Parking and arrival areas lead to the main living room and dining room. These spaces lead to two patient housing wings, with patient and staff support functions situated in between, along a pair of bifurcated, double-loaded circulation spines. One circulation artery is intended for patient and visitor use, the second is primarily for staff use
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5.9.4 Meditation room features narrow vertical bands of fenestration and minimalist furnishings
5.9.5 The vaulted ceiling, recessed cove perimeter lighting, and articulated ridge beam of the main living room, which also features large windows, skylights, and artwork
5.9.6 Typical inpatient private bedroom, with bed convertible to sofa, windows with views of the forest, a glass door to the patio, and built-in television opposite the bed
10 Chu-lin Nursing Home and Hospice,
I-Lan, Taiwan, R.O.C.
ARCHITECT: Sheng-Yuan Hwang Architects & Planners, Taiwan, R.O.C.
CLIENT: Chu-lin Nursing Center
CONSTRUCTION: Reinforced concrete, masonry, steel, glass window walls; four levels
COMPLETED: 1999
INPATIENT BEDS: 8 (hospice) + 64 long-term care beds
SITE/PARKING: 4.3 acres/35
The Chu-lin Nursing Home and Hospice, winner of an archi- tecture design award in Taiwan in 1999, makes maximum use of its site in a small rural community. It is primarily a long-term care retirement center, but also provides a number of beds on site for inpatient hospice care. Depending on preference, and an individual’s health status, patients and families who request hospice care may ask that the patient be relocated to a hos-
pice-only suite. I-Lan is set within a rural farming region, and the local population is aging rapidly. On the road approach- ing this care center, passing through the rice paddies, one can view small farmhouses set against a backdrop of mountains (Figs 5.10.1 and 5.10.2). This inspired the concept of having the building express the village’s progression through time, in the variously stacked and shifted levels of this five-level building. The gabled roofs of numerous duck pens and cisterns are the first structures visible on the approach to the building. The architect references these forms in various gabled roofs and exteriorly exposed ducts and pipe work on the building in ref- erence to these traditional structures. The parti is elongated, with narrow zigzag corridors. The building’s zigzag footprint is a reference to the zigzag streets of the village. The corri- dors widen at the center, yielding social activity space. Patients simultaneously have views of interior spaces and views to the outside (Fig. 5.10.3).
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5.10.1 Chu-lin Nursing Home
and Hospice, I-lan, Taiwan, exterior view. The facility is set against a backdrop of a mountain range
5.10.2 View of a rural agricultural landscape and agrarian building, with Chu-lin Nursing Home and Hospice in the background
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5.10.3a–f Jagged, irregular floor templates evoke the nearby mountain range, and yield spatial juxtapositions throughout the six levels of the facility. The almost seismic-like deployment of rooms is perhaps most clearly discernible with respect to the large, open social activity rooms on each floor, which afford full views outward to the surrounding countryside
The materials of construction are locally available. The floor plates shift and undulate on top of one another, creating shifts in room orientation, scale, shape, and spatial relationships to the adjoining outdoor terraces. On each floor, the dayroom and related social gathering spaces have east- or west-oriented full height glass curtain walls, affording views to the nearby village and the surrounding rural landscape (Fig. 5.10.4). A nurses’ sta-
tion is situated across from the dayroom space at the midsec- tion of each patient housing floor. This space is separated from the adjacent dayroom by a wall and visual and verbal communi- cation occurs via sliding glass windows adjoining the corridor. Staircases are designed to allow for unobstructed views to the exterior (Fig. 5.10.5). Each bedroom consists of three or four beds, a shared bathroom and shower, and a terrace (Fig. 5.10.6).
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5.10.5 A staircase is rendered as a semi-transparent element as the result of the elimination of its risers. The views are not impeded by what would otherwise have more of a wall-like appearance
5.10.6 Exterior terraces taper and undulate in accord with the jagged irregularity of the floor templates. They appear as ship decks, replete with vegetation in planters made of concrete. The handrails, however, are redundant, as these spaces are not intended for use by residents