Carefree living in an innovative way

Stylish, lively and well cared for. These are the core values of the Tilburg residential care organization Het Laar, and its new residential care building, Laarstede, was built exactly according to this philosophy. A major achievement, given the tight turnaround time and the fact that the first plans were forged in the middle of the corona crisis and during the start of the war in Ukraine, with sharply fluctuating raw materials prices. It therefore required a great deal of creativity from all parties involved and, in particular, the Tilburg contractor Heerkens van Bavel Bouw to achieve the intended quality.

Het Laar is a residential care organization for the elderly and, according to director Lonneke de Haan, is distinguished by its unique approach. "We embrace life and try to reason from life as much as possible, regardless of the care requirements you get as you get older. With us, residents can live their lives as independently as possible. We also value a healthy mix of residents in which the total target group is represented: from vital elderly to intensive nursing home care and everything in between." Until recently, Het Laar operated out of one location with three buildings, but as the demand for care continues to grow and residents (thankfully) get older, it was decided to increase capacity for vital elderly. "We've done that by creating more space for people with dementia in the new residential care building Laarstede," he said.

Laarstede is ideally suited for elderly people in need of 24-hour support and proximity. "We have devised a residential care concept for people with dementia in which they can retain as much control over their lives as possible and make their own choices," says De Haan. "After all, living is paramount at Het Laar. We invest in that because we believe in life. By letting people make their own choices, the demand for care will eventually be much smaller. We know that like no other, because we've been using that concept at Het Laar for almost 50 years." Joris Truijen, sector manager of housing at Het Laar, adds: "Together with the architect, we translated that vision into a design where we offer residents all an independent apartment, with their own front door and their own mailbox, house number and doorbell." 

In total, Laarstede has 67 apartments of nearly 50 m2 spread over seven floors. Each apartment has a private bathroom, bedroom, kitchen/living room and a balcony or terrace adjacent to the outdoor area. On each floor there is a meeting room and a cozy sitting area. The floors are all themed. For example, there is a music room, an area for creativity and relaxation and a library, all with specific furnishings, furniture and color palette tailored to the theme. Residents are free to move around the building and visit all the meeting spaces to suit their lifestyle or time of day.

Also special in Laarstede is the freedom of choice in enjoying meals. Residents eat together in one of the three residential kitchens, individually in their own apartment or in the attractive Grand Café. "So they can choose what time of day and where they eat the meal. That's pretty special," Truijen assures. "Experience and conviviality are central. The longer you use the common rooms, the less you are concerned with care. In addition to the various meeting rooms, residents can also join the extensive range of activities we organize Laarbreed or treat themselves to a lovely active walk through our park-like garden with exercise equipment, a large pond, a bowling alley and much more." That, as a resident with dementia, you still get to make those choices yourself is truly unique, De Haan emphasizes. "At regular nursing homes, as a resident you often don't get to leave your small-scale living setting and are therefore surrounded by the same fellow residents all day. People can become over-stimulated as a result. That is absolutely not the case here in Laarstede. Residents can meet each other in the many rooms, but if they have no desire for entertainment there are countless places where they can relax, away from their own apartment. They can organize their own lives without being forced to be in a group. That is really of great added value."

As a born and bred Tilburger, Wim Mathijsen, manager of construction and commerce at Heerkens van Bavel Bouw, also appreciates the unique concept of Het Laar. "As a Tilburg contractor, we are proud that we were given the opportunity to further develop the building together with Het Laar. The tender did fall exactly in a period that was quite challenging for the building industry in the Netherlands, because of the corona crisis and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. A lot of things were under pressure and we had to deal with price fluctuations that we had never experienced before. From Het Laar, of course, a bandwidth was set within which the building had to be realized.   

This ultimately required a great deal of creativity from all parties with respect for each other's vision. Looking back, there was also a very ambitious plan in terms of lead time, especially in view of the enormously high quality and level of finishing that was required." 

In just sixteen months, Heerkens van Bavel Bouw completed the building. The first pile was driven in mid-November 2022, the highest point was reached in June 2023, and the building was delivered in early March 2024. Two weeks later, the first residents moved in. Truijen: "In those two weeks, we even had time to test the building with staff and volunteers. Truly an achievement of stature. Together we have built a very successful building that appeals to people and that we are proud of as an organization."

It is also a wonderful reference for Heerkens van Bavel Bouw. Mathijsen: "We have known Het Laar as a client for a very long time and have done a lot for it in the past, but you have to prove yourself every time. And we succeeded. There is a beautiful building, which also radiates high quality from the outside and, thanks to the special steel cladding with relief, never looks the same at any time of the day."

Client and caregiver:
The Laar

Architect:
BiermanHenket

Construction Management:
Buster Construction Control

Contractor:
Heerkens van Bavel Construction

Constructor:
Consultancy firm Tielemans

Installations Advisor:
Klictet Advice

E-installation:
Van Hees Electrical Engineering

W installation:
Verstappen van Amelsvoort

GaWaLo/Sanitary:
Installation company Bierings B.V. 

Furnishings:
Vervoort Meubelen (furniture), Fiori (attractive greenery) and Huijzers Grootkeuken Techniek (Grand Café)

Site layout:
TTO Demolition & Infra

Construction time:
November 2022 - March 2024

- Demolition work: September 2022

- Setting up construction site: October 2022

- Start of new construction: November 2022

- Completion: March 2024

Total area of land:
approx. 2,600 m2

Total building area:
6,514 m2 GLA

Program:
67 apartments, 7 meeting rooms, 1 Grand Café