Nearby St. Moritz, this residence for the elderly had over 140 individual rooms. Grouped in three longitudinal buildings, parallel to each other, they stepped along a sloped terrain behind a hospital. Overlooking the Alps, the public spaces between them included an entrance boulevard, a plaza, and a garden for a unit of dementia. Rooms tilted southwards, for better views and solar exposure, producing a zigzag contour in the façades. This indentation subdivided the length of the buildings, individuating each part. The residence was planned in reinforced concrete, clad with precast concrete panels and larch wood framings. The framings had different colors, in order to identify the sectors of the residence. Sprinkled by these assorted hues, the ensemble was both repetitious and picturesque.
Date: 2011 | Location: Samedan, Switzerland | Client: Canton of Grisons | Architecture: Patrícia Barbas, Diogo Lopes