Grown Up - A vertical Extension of a Retirement Home with Timber Constructions.

Expansion of an existing nursing home in Munich, Germany, with regards to ecological, economic, and socio-cultural sustainability. The urgent need for more affordable care has prompted a redesign of the typical care apartments towards shared community flats. An open structure of CLT columns and beams create versatile usable room sequences.

The Augustinum Group operates a senior citizen residence in the Feldmoching-Hasenbergl district of Munich. The building, constructed in the 1970s, is a high-rise reinforced concrete structure with over 100 meters in length, separated in five buildings of different heights, and 14 floors. The living spaces range from one to three-room apartments with age-appropriate built-in furniture, corresponding sanitary facilities, and large windows facing west or east. The new building design aims to offer contemporary answers to the serious shortage of age-appropriate apartments and the growing number of increasingly vital seniors by implementing a group system that organizes and regulates itself. The ground floor of the extension on the 10th floor serves as a communal area for all activities that require more space and exchange, including festivals, lectures, and performances. The shared apartments above have flexible room layouts that can initiate other forms of communal living, including also larger spaces for dementia care. The expansion of the residential community is made possible by the uniform reinforced concrete construction and the various building heights of the existing building. Thus the construction components are more strongly dimensioned and have a load reserve that is essential for the addition. Conventional brick or concrete construction would not allow the desired new building volume. The weight of pinewood used in the construction sector is only around 5 kN/m3, while concrete weighs 25.5 kN/m3, which is five times more than wood. Therefore the building material of wood allows for a much greater expansion.\r\nA timber frame construction with partially visible solid wood ceilings is used to expand the building onto the existing structure, creating versatile usable room sequences. The addition of various shared apartments for the elderly aims to meet the demand for affordable housing for seniors while reducing the consumption of space and resources.