The new elderly home of the OCMW (Social Action Public Center) in Sint-Genesius-Rode, “de Groene Linde” (“the green linden”), provides accommodation for 84 residents requiring care or afflicted with senile dementia.

The rest home is discretely integrated among the buildings and services existing on the site. It is connected to the present rest home, which will be transformed in the future to house an ensemble of supervised residential accommodations.

With its buildings spread out, the site resembles a village where the inhabitants can easily circulate on foot in every direction. The stairway to the main building enhances this feeling of a village.

The new building follows the natural relief of the terrain, which offers the advantage of limiting grading and excavation work to a minimum.

In order to lessen the impermeable surface, the roofs are covered in vegetation. These green zones retain rainfall and enhance the green equilibrium of the site.

Both old and new buildings are arranged around a closed garden that includes a water feature, two rows of trees and terraced shrubberies.

The welcome zone is treated with particular care. It is the preferred meeting place of the residents who gather there every day to talk and to observe the comings and goings of visitors. Surrounding this area, commercial and administrative service facilities add to the animation.

The form of the building allows for interchangeability of the various care units. This provides both short- and long-term flexibility of purpose.

Each unit can house 14 residents in conditions similar to family lodgings. Each has a living area with a large kitchen where shared activities such as cooking and watching TV can take place. The care staff can observe the residents from their own locale in all discretion.

Following specifications, each pair of units has its own entrance and private garden.

The rest home is conceived as a personalized communal residence, avoiding any suggestion of a medical establishment with its long and empty corridors, which have a negative effect on quality of life, conviviality and perception.

Dividing each unit into two sub-units and creating multiple vantage points reduces the length of the corridors.

Dead-end corridors are also avoided by creating meeting places or physical therapy cabinets that confer a feeling of greater intimacy.

Each resident is free to participate in communal life in the public areas or to spend their time in their individual accommodations. This is the reason why the dimensions of the rooms are quite large. Each has a corner window. The residents thus benefit from a fine view on the exterior world as well as better natural light.

A movable panel partition is situated between the “living” and “hygiene” areas of each room. This makes it much easier for staff to dispense care, particularly the various tasks necessary for people with extremely reduced mobility.

All areas are, insofar as possible, illuminated by natural light. At night, “Biolux” artificial lighting, diffusing a color temperature 7,500 °K that is similar to natural daylight, is used.

Great care is taken in the application of sustainable construction principles: the rest home is designed as an air-impermeable building with an airlock security entrance. Insulation is as thick as 15 cm for the walls and 20 cm for the roof.

The facade is dressed with a patchwork of 50- to 37.5-cm painted cement-fiber panels, following the pattern proposed by the artist Georges Meurant.