Aging gracefully. This philosophy was the focal point for the creation of Hiléa, a complex intended and customized for senior citizens, designed by the architecture company Aflalo & Gasperini and located in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. This complex building integrates a variety of functions: a hotel, home, club and medical clinic, specializing in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Senior citizens must be immersed in the urban context, in environments which will provide solutions for their mobility, vision and judgment impairments.
Constructed on a lot of 27.9861ft2, the building is divided into two sections: a low horizontal base, containing three floors for the common areas of the hotel and the clinic activities; and a high-rise, measuring 164.041’ lengthwise and 55.77’ in the width consisting of eight floors where the suites are distributed. An ICU was set up on the rooftop with a differentiated characteristic, it has wide windows looking out onto the garden, allowing the patient to connect with the outdoors and stimulating their convalescence.
The first floor is dedicated to patients with Alzheimer’s disease and their special needs. They require references from the past, given that their memories are very remote. For that reason, a plaza was created with double headroom decorated to represent the 50’s settings, and to ensure their comfort.
The floors have one centralized nursing station, 18 apartments, a dining hall located at one extremity of the floor and a private room at the opposite extremity. Such distribution has the purpose of stimulating patients to walk across the halls and socialize. All apartments include emergency hospital equipment.
The first underground floor opens up into the gardens, were also installed a covered swimming pool, sauna, gym, physiotherapy and massage rooms, painting studio, hair salon and playroom for children.
Occupying a total of 144.236ft2 of built area, Hiléa offers contemporary architecture as well as practical and functional materials, visually warming up the building with the use of woods. Promoting tone contrast, the building also received pre-fabricated laminated melamine in a light color. As a solution to filter natural light intensity, gazebos were installed in the ground floor as well as the rooftop, creating an identity and providing shade.