Cotton Comfort Assisted Living

COTTON COMFORT LIVING

Dr. Guerrero

What design features can ease the transition into assisted living communities for aging couples and widowers/widows with differing needs?

Cotton Comfort Living is to be Lubbock’s newest Assisted Living Community. It is tucked away off Avenue P and 130th St, on a 10-acre lot that is minutes away from the loop and Interstate 87. Cotton Comfort will home between 20-40 residents. Each resident will have their own apartment along with shared amenities like a community dining hall, library, movie theater, greenhouse, and more. Residents will also have their own personalized experience here at Cotton Comfort.

PROJECTSTATEMENT CONCEPTSTATEMENT RESEARCHQUESTION

Cotton Comfort’s design is inspired by 1960s suburbia. Cotton Comfort will serve as a simple oasis away from the hustle and bustle for residents to relax with elements like wood paneling, sharp simple lines, lush greenery inside and out, muted colors, and more. Knowing the residents have lived through this time, the design will be modernized by not making the interiors too bright or outdated, while keeping in mind to not have too harsh of contracts in colors, texture, or lighting, and to choose materials and finishes that are slip-resistant and easy to navigate. Keeping things simple for the residents but staying in the wheelhouse to ensure the residents feel at home. Nature is important for well-being and healing, so views of nature and nature-like elements will be added throughout the design as well. The residents will feel the nostalgia here at Cotton Comfort.

COMPARATIVE CASESTUDY COTTONCOMFORT

116 residents 50 residents 24 residents 8-16 residents

Commercial Kitchen Residential Style Kitchen Residential Style Kitchen Residential Style Kitchen

This building is very repetitive. Its very easy to get lost because everything looks the same. There is furniture throughout the walking paths for a resident to stop and take a break while walking.

Something unique about Parkway Place is that the building is set back on the lot by a yard and parking. The large front yard I would imagine to be very inviting

Something that is very unique is that all the units open straight into all the public areas that are grouped together.

The building will have a few types of public areas that can be rearranged for the different activities. There will be a indoor and outdoor walking path that is inviting to the residents.

Circulation is linear, the entrance along with public areas such as the dining room, and living room/library are central with linear paths either way. The resident who lives at the end of the hall has a significantly longer path to the public areas than someone right off the public areas.

Almost an entire loop circulation when thinking about the front door. Will have to cut through the dining room to get back to the front door.

There is no specific circulation here, all of the apartments lead into the public area which has the kitchen, den, dining room, living room/library, and the front/back porches.

Having a specific path to the entrances/exits and the public areas with easy wayfinding. having the apartments grouped together so that a resident doesn’t get confused finding their apartment.

FINDINGS

FOR ASSISTED LIVING DESIGN

ASSESSABILITY

Easy-to-grab handles and knobs

Adjustable cabinetry in apartments

Illuminated electrical controls and switches

Barn doors when possible and light in weight and easy to open.

EASE TRANSITION

Have a customizable experience

Have space for personal items

Have privacy for residents

Residential looking with commercial performance materials and finishes.

Explore the needs of residents beforehand along with the family of the residents.

COLORS AND MATERIALS

Easily cleanable fabric and finishes

Non-slip floors and surfaces

Offer different types of firmness of seating

Have multiple paint colors in the interiors.

Residential feel with commercial performance materials.

MOBILITY

Zero threshold floors

Grab bars

Flooring that is nonslip and easy for residents to “shuffle” on. Room for two scooters/walkers to pass each other in the halls.

SAFE METHOD

Safety is having a space where users feel safe and want to enter. Attractiveness, having a space that people want to go.

Friendliness, having a space for interactions, and for privacy Efficiency, having open paths for a user who walks through space so travel is easy and quick.

WALKING PATHS

Many residents walk recreationally, the walking path should be convenient comfortable have handrails, have places to sit and rest, places where residents can people watch, be visually interesting, be biophilic, protected from the weather.

The major finings for the eight research summaries found.

SUMMARY

The narrative for assisted living needs to change. This is a place for the aging communities to live for a long period, why shouldn’t it be inviting and comfortable? It is not a place that makes your life harder its to make it easier.

2.

1. Have comfortable walking paths with places to take breaks.

3.

Traditional housing focuses on the average family, not on aging in place

SAFE Method

5.

4. Add Assecable electrical controls and switches.

Explore the needs and residential wishes of new generations of older individuals.

6. Privacy is needed in social spaces, and it has room for families in the apartments.

8.

Do not have a large contrast in lighting, large illuminated lightswitches, have each to access emergency buttons.

7. Change in hand dexterity and habitual speed reflects cognitive decline over time.

CONCEPTIMAGERY

PROJECTIMAGERY

Primary

PRIMARY

UNDESIRED ADJACENCY FOR RESIDENTS AND FAMILIES

FOR ALL RESIDENTS

FOR ALL RESIDENTS

FOR ALL RESIDENTS

FOR ALL RESIDENTS

WHEN FAMILIES VISIT

1 BED, 1 BATH, LIVING, KITCHENETTE

FOR ALL RESIDENTS

FOR ALL RESIDENTS

FOR ALL RESIDENTS

OUTDOOR BUT PRIVATE VIEWS

FOR ALL RESIDENTS

FOR ALL RESIDENTS

FOR ALL RESIDENTS

LOTS OF STORAGE

LOTS

Secondary

SECONDARY ADJACENCY

Undesired

DENTAPARTMENT

WALLUNIT

Made in Denmark, 1953.

Cado Royal Wall Unit in Teak

Designer: Poul Cadovius, 1911-2011

Born just outside of Copenhagen in 1911, Cadovius began manufacturing window treatments in the 1940s with his partner, Hother Brenner. He soon turned his focus from Venetian blinds to furniture, finding success designing svelte pieces in teak, a richly colored hardwood favored by the Danish mid-century modernists.

Most famous for his modular floating shelving system, Cadovius founded the furniture manufacturer Royal System with his designs, and in 1948 he produced the Royal System shelving unit a space-saving solution that underscored Cado's penchant for problem-solving in a multifunctional way. Rather than balancing shelves on wooden or metal legs, it held them to the wall with brackets. The Royal System proved to be especially popular and early models continue to be in demand. In 2018 this piece celebrated its 70th anniversary.

LOBBY

GREENHOUSE

LIBRARY