Design Process

Building location. The layout of the nursing home residence is chosen to unfold in plan, ensuring the building's autonomy and accessibility.

Site A provides a parking area, children's activity area, planting area, and resident activity area. The elderly in the nursing home and the surrounding residents can relax in this area, while the planting can be used for meals in the nersing home.

Daily Services Medical Accommodation

The layout of the nursing home is organised around a courtyard, with different courtyards linking the accommodation, daily living and office areas. The home is equipped with a number of medical and living services (dining room, laundry, living room, indoor activity areas, etc.) and can accommodate 60 people.

Administration Area

Individual Habitation

Function. The scheme is organised around five courtyards housing five modules (two administrative modules (yellow) and three residential modules (green)). An optimum level of natural light and ventilation is guaranteed for all spaces.

Courtyard. The proposal uses the outdoor spaces as structural elements of the scheme, enabling the elderly to occupy and make use of them, guaranteeing a tense, rich and varied relationship with the outdoor spaces.

Flow lines. Circulation has been addressed by a central trunk line that is divided into three sections providing access to the three residential units.

Vegetation. A diverse ecosystem is created through native planting landscaping that elicits interaction with people to create a sense of belonging.

Expansion. The planar layout can be expanded in the future as needed to meet the needs of more people.

01. Green Roofs

A green roof improves the energy performance of a building complex. It reduces heat gain in summer (95%) and heat loss in winter (26%). It also improves storm water management and reduces the urban heat island effect.

02. Cladding

Single layer hot clay wall, SATE envelope and lime based cladding. Reduces thermal bridging, high thermal inertia and hygrothermal control.

03. Solar protection

Wooden roller shutters, combined with the deep geometry of the promenade, protect the interior from excessive solar radiation in summer. The position of the roller shutter in the open position also promotes cross ventilation.

04. Load-bearing walls

Load-bearing walls made of hot clay, a naturally sourced material with a long life and high thermal inertia, combine responsible mining with an efficient production process that uses few resources and energy.

05. Thermal inertia

Concrete paving is recommended to provide high thermal inertia to the equipment, allowing it to withstand direct radiation in winter and to store the night-time coolness generated by crossventilation in summer.

06. Courtyards

The courtyard provides bioclimatic benefits. The native vegetation produces a microclimate that accumulates fresh air in the lower areas and reduces the need for cooling in the summer.

Suzhou2020

Shared Housing on the Market

Individual work

Autumn semester of 2021

Theme: Residence / Technology and Tradition / Shared market

Type: Residence and Market

Site: Suzhou, China

Tutor: Juan Yruela Castillo

The project is located at the junction of the old urban area and the new urban area of Suzhou, close to the moat and Riverside Park of Suzhou. The project requires to design a residential area combining residence and business based on architectural typology to meet the needs of three categories of people, business travelers, visiters and students. The residential area contains at least two types of accommodation and more than one courtyard. In the process of design, I started with the rivers in Suzhou and the traditional life in Suzhou to form a commercial space walking with water and a residential space combined with courtyard. Bring rivers into the site forms a variety of relationships with water sources, reflecting the relationship between traditional Suzhou folk dwelings and water. The combination of residential area and courtyard adds public space for residents, and different small building units meet the needs of different groups through different combinations.