Denentia Centre in Aarhus: Sustainable curative and pavilliative architecture

Abstract

Under temaet demens, undersøger projektet hvorledes trivsel opnås for demente gennem brugen af arkitekturen. Med fordybelse i tektoniske og bæredygtige aspekter, gives arkitekturen kvaliteter der højner mennesketsvelvære. Med afsæt i nutidige plejehjem der ikke er tilstrækkelige for dementes behov, tages der udgangspunkt i konkurrencen for det nye demenscenter i Aarhus. Demente borgere er en stigende målgruppe bestående af mennesker med komplekse problemstillinger.Gennem de senere år er der opnået forståelse for en nødvendig forøgelse af hensyntagen til denne brugergruppe. Med det eksisterende demenscentrum tilbydes demente ikke de bedste vilkår for deres sygdom, derfor er opbygningen af et nyt demenscenter på Skovvangsvej vedtaget. Demenscenteret udgøre det eksisterende demenscentrum, men skal samtidig forener nødvendige funktioner for den demente og implementere den nyeste viden i et tidssvarende byggeri. Gennem en integreret proces har analyser og studier formet designprocessen. Med afsæt i skovvangsvej som den nye placering for demenscenteret, eksistere der en brat overgang fra en typologi til en anden, her skabes der en forbindelse mellem de to ved brugen af bygningsvolumen for at skabe en blid overgang. Layoutet af sitet og bygningsformentager afsæt i studier af de dementes behov, som skal opfyldes for opnåelse af trivsel. Der er taget højde for at kunne træffe forskellige valg, i forhold til det social, omgivelser og oplevelser, ydermere har indeklimaet været essentiel i udformningen af bygningen. Bygningen er et resultat af forsøget på opnåelse af trivsel, ved tilføjelse af værdier og muligheder i de dementes hverdag.

The point of departure for this Master Thesis is a competition material from Aarhus Dementia and Brain Centre. This competition focus on creating homes for people with dementia in which they could thrive regardless of the condition. The proposal is to build 125 homes with good living and working conditions, indoor climate and low energy consumptions fulflling the building class 2020 with an energy frame on 20kWh/m2 year without renewable strategies. In Denmark, the elderly population has been increasing rapidly, and, consequently, the number of people with dementia has risen. Today around 90.000 Danes are living with dementia and the number of death has increased twice in the last ten years. Due to the lack of care homes built for people with Dementia, in most of the care homes residents that functions cognitively, are mixed with residents with different degrees of dementia. This has a huge impact on the resident’s well-being. Architecture is all around people in the physical world. It has a great infuence on changing peoples emotional and spatial surroundings. It can move people deeply and help them to experience the spatial surroundings in the best possible way when this is done in the fnest potential form. For this project, it was designed for people with dementia who directly react and respond to the design solution, as it is crucial for their health and medical condition. Therefore, medical-aca- demic research and publications where studied, in order to concentrate on human’s well- being. In this case, architecture should not be based on the architect’s need for aesthetic approval but on the human. With this project, it was therefore important for us to focus on the human relation to architecture.

A master thesis from Aalborg University

Denentia Centre in Aarhus: Sustainable curative and pavilliative architecture

[Demens center i Aarhus: Bæredygtig helbredende og lindrende arkitektur]