The residential and nursing home is to be located at the eastern edge of the new urban district and is a prelude to the new urban centre of Rheinstetten. Importantly the new building is intended to serve as a noise barrier, sheltering the residential area immediately to the west. For this reason, the building will also bridge over the main access road. The nursing home includes a range of day-care facilities which will benefit from natural synergies with supervised senior citizen housing. This combination of semi-public uses is highly suited to this entrance situation of the new urban district and, once completed, will provide a distinctive urban gateway.
The architectural concept for the new building foresees a "hard clear edge" addressing the noise of the street in the north-east, contrasted by the projections and recesses of a "soft edge" facing onto the small-scale residential development to the south-west. Thereby the building form is a direct architectural response to local conditions. Projecting floors and balconies provide a passive means of shading for the underlying south-west orientated facades. To the street box windows afford the demanded levels of sound insulation and provide a rhythm within the horizontally arranged façade. These are complimented vertical openings providing natural light to the staircases. The different uses are clearly legible; visually structure the building.
The ASB (Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund) is to build a new social institution:
This program has been developed in order to meet the specific nursing home requirements in Rheinstetten with 30% of the building to be provided as subsidized housing. Services offered take advantage of natural synergies between the different uses and result in compact efficient planning. The facility will be planned according to the latest developments in long-term care. An attractive architecture and light-filled interiors are intended to significantly promote the well-being of both the residents, out-patients and visitors alike. The internal organization will include 6 small communities, each for up to 15 residents. Each of the modern single rooms will be provided with disability code compliant bathrooms. Out-patient areas can be accessed separately.
The proposed concept focuses on energy efficiency and maximum use of renewable energy. Increased energy code targets of the EnEV are to be implemented. The planned construction will ensure low transmission heat losses, and substantially reduced operational costs. Our aim is to minimizing primary energy use while ensuring high levels of thermal comfort in the respective areas of the building. Decentralized technical systems are to be optimally sized, reducing risk of redundancy. In order to achieve healthy living and working conditions, only carefully selected and low-emission certified building materials are used. The material selection both for construction work and landscaping is to be based on wide-ranging ecological criteria, such as a low quantity of gray energy and environmentally safe disposal. Throughout priority is to be given to functionality. The building envelope comprises high performance thermally insulated components, thus avoiding thermal bridging. The building is connected to the existing district heating network for heat supply. The solar thermal system is to supply both the heating system and heating of water for domestic use. The controlled use of solar gains reduces the heat requirement in both the apartments and patient rooms.