Lifelong Klepperwei blends into surroundings

From an insubstantial nursing home dating back to 1971, Klepperwei in Rhoon has been transformed into a modern, attractive and attractive care building after a demolition and new construction process. The new building includes 60 studios for seniors with dementia, spacious living rooms, 12 Full Package Home (VPT) apartments, offices and common areas. Contractor BM van Houwelingen delivered the building at the end of October, with the first residents moving in two days later. 

The building was designed by Lengkeek Architects, which followed the Care Concept method for this. This method, with the stacking of a kind of Lego blocks, makes it clear even before the design process for the client and also the municipality what the spatial possibilities and consequences of certain ideas and choices are. By designing from the inside out according to the Care-Concept, the well-being of the residents and efficiency for the employees come first, only then comes the design of the facade.

Just before the inauguration, Regional Manager Koos van de Lagemaat, Housing and Care Manager Esther Frank and Process Supervisor New Construction Nick Visser of Argos Care Group are visibly delighted with the final result. "It is of course a beautiful location for a nursing home with the pond on one side and a beautiful garden on the entrance side," Van de Lagemaat says. "The old building was up after 49 years of faithful service, but we are very happy to be back here. Especially for the residents. Argos Care Group is going back from 72 to 60 nursing homes here, but we were able to add 12 VPT homes. The big gain is in the modern housing for our clients and the spacious communal facilities. The new building also fits beautifully into the green surroundings, much better than the 1970s old building." 

Frank explains the layout of the building. "The two wings adjacent to the pond house the 60 studios with 24-hour care. The VPT apartments are at the front. General facilities and offices are located around the entrance hall and in the armpit on the floors are the spacious living rooms, which are furnished according to our 3R principle: Rest, Space and Reuring. This refers to the choices our clients have in the kind of place they feel comfortable. The living rooms have large windows, so there is plenty of contact with the outside. The decor is warm, with light natural tones, floral wallpaper and matching furniture. Lengkeek Architects translated our brief well." 

For the realization of Klepperwei, the architectural firm applied the Care Concept method, a method for developing future-proof and sustainable buildings for housing and care. Marco Kuus, Technical Director at Lengkeek Architects: "The Care Concept developed by Wesolve brings about a project in steps, with the second phase being a workshop with the client and a specialized team including architect, cost expert and structural engineer. In it, a large aerial photograph is used to assemble the building with a kind of Lego blocks. The cubes are the modules representing functions and housing types, which are completely interchangeable. There are as many as forty different modules, but for Klepperwei we worked with three colors: blue for heavy care, yellow for VPT and red for general facilities. The color red already makes it clear that you want to keep these as small as possible from an operating point of view. From there, three proposals were developed, from which the current solution turned out to be the most optimal."

Care Concept is not the same as BIM in lego execution. Kuus: "No, you design from the inside out, having already thought about the installation concept and how the construction is put together. Moreover, you can visualize the solutions with the cubes. For example, to people who are not specialized in designing for healthcare. You can make clear what happens logistically, if you want to connect living rooms or prefer to place them at the head of a wing. You then figure out very quickly whether something is possible or not. Essential is that before designing, you already have a substantive understanding of how the care process works. At the end of the workshop, the structure is largely determined and everyone has been able to give their input. This prevents later discussions in the process and cost and effort of adjusting your plans." 

For contractor BM van Houwelingen, it was a first introduction to Care Concept. Project leader Harmen Karssies: "For us it was a relatively traditional project that we only got involved in at a late stage via a tender. And by traditional I mean a shell of concrete floors, sand-lime brick walls and HSB facades. An old indoor transformer that was not allowed to disappear was a tricky detail and connecting the utilities was not done in one day. And just before the start of construction, part of the first floor was repurposed from rehabilitation without a living room to target clients with dementia. 

The Care Concept made switching relatively easy to do. And good cooperation with all parties always excites me. When you consider that by the end of October, just two days after completion, the first residents were already moving in, you know it was good."

An important aspect of the modular Care Concept is flexibility and life-cycle resistance. Kuus: "The modules are interchangeable so that the building, or part of it, can be given a different function relatively easily and at low cost. Decentralized installation technology is the key here. The care studios are equipped in pairs with a heat pump and have decentralized ventilation via ClimaRad on the facade. For example, you can later merge two studios into one home. There are virtually no ducts in the house partition walls and it also saves an enormous amount of ductwork running through the building. Of course, the care studios are fully equipped with all modern care domotics and the owner can also quickly scale up the VPT homes from light to heavy care."  

Klepperwei is also an asset to the neighborhood. The building has wings with stepped heads and strong horizontal lines to give it a smaller scale appearance. A masonry look in a light blended color, panels of green spachtelputz, gray aluminum window frames and organic shapes at the main entrance create a natural look toward the green surroundings. "The garden and pond are also integral and part of the design," said Van de Lagemaat. "Residents have a view of the greenery almost everywhere because of the generous expanses of glass, especially in the living rooms. I think that with the entire team we have created a successful living environment with a high level of finish for the clients and VPT residents." Process supervisor Nick Visser sees the finish line approaching in December: "That's when the VPT apartments will be completed. A process that began with the move out in September 2020 and temporary housing in Hoogvliet is concluded with the phased move in of old residents in recent weeks and the welcoming of the new influx. On Jan. 18 is the official opening."

There may be more in store for Karssies and Kuus. Karssies: "This was a first experience together. There is still plenty to learn and smarter approaches. We came as a contractor from a tender and were therefore late to the table. I would like to think along earlier about constructions, installations and facades and go through processes of the concept together." Kuus also sees points of contact: "At BM van Houwelingen the lines of communication are short and the management owns the company. That allows you to switch gears well. In a project with a very tight schedule like Klepperwei, that's a big advantage."