Elderly House: A W-Shaped Senior Residence That Balances Privacy, Care and Community

Most elderly housing is designed around what residents can no longer do. Elderly House starts from the opposite premise: what older adults still want to do, and how a building can make that easier. The result is a residential complex that refuses the institutional block. Its long body bends repeatedly across the site so that rooms face gardens, light and landscape, while dining halls, cafés, exercise spaces, healthcare areas and rooftop pools sit within walking distance of every door. The core argument is that architecture should help older people live comfortably, securely and with dignity, without forcing them to choose between independence and support.

Designed by Nicodesign Team, the proposal was shortlisted in the Co-Life competition on uni.xyz. It imagines a large-scale community built around the changing physical, social and emotional needs of aging. Residents can live alone, with a partner, with a friend, or in accommodation that allows additional care when necessary. Four flexible room types structure that choice, and the surrounding common spaces give each resident control over how socially active they want to be.

A W-Shaped Plan That Turns Its Wings Toward the Landscape

The elevation makes the building's scale plain: a long, continuous horizontal composition clad in timber slats and glass. In plan, this length folds into a W, and that fold is the project's most consequential decision. A rectangular block of this size would bury many rooms on internal corridors or north-facing edges. Bending the plan multiplies the façade, produces several distinct wings, and opens landscaped pockets between them, so a large share of the rooms can look outward toward gardens and daylight.

The geometry also does social work. From a distance the complex reads as one figure, but at pedestrian level its curves, openings and individual wings break the mass into recognisable parts. For residents who may struggle with wayfinding, a building with identifiable wings and garden edges is easier to read than an endless uniform corridor.

Vertical Screens and a Soft Edge Between Inside and Garden

The rooftop terrace shows how the outer skin of vertical screens becomes a spatial device rather than a decorative wrapper. A curving translucent wall shelters a planted bed and outdoor tables, while a timber slat canopy filters light over residents walking through. The roof is treated as usable ground, extending the garden upward and giving people a protected outdoor room without leaving the building.

At the entrance, the ribbed glass wall follows the curve of the plan, and the path across the lawn arrives at the building gently rather than at a hard institutional front door. Trees planted around the structure and at roof level soften the edges of what would otherwise be an overwhelming residential mass. The changing rhythm of the fins also shifts with the viewer's movement, giving a long façade some variation without fragmenting it.

The Dining Hall as a Room for Meeting, Not Just Eating

The proposal treats restaurants and dining areas as social spaces rather than service amenities, and the interior rendering supports that claim. Wooden chairs and tables, round ceiling lights and a curved glass wall facing a sunlit park give the hall the character of a public café more than a canteen. The curve of the plan pays off here: the dining room wraps toward the landscape, so a meal becomes an occasion to sit by the view and to see who else is there.

This matters because shared meals are often the most reliable daily encounter in later life. Placing that ritual in a generous, outward-looking room makes social contact a natural by-product of routine rather than a scheduled activity.

Numbered Doors and Corridors Scaled to the Individual

The elevation of red paneled doors numbered 68 and 69 is a modest drawing, but it reveals the project's attention to the threshold of private life. Strong colour and clear numbering make each entry identifiable, an important cue for orientation in a building of this size. Below, the corridor view with a terrazzo floor and angular ceiling lights suggests a circulation space that is durable and bright rather than clinical.

These doors open onto the four flexible residential types at the centre of the scheme. The corridor is where the balance between privacy and participation becomes physical: a resident can step from a personal room into shared territory in a few paces, and retreat just as easily. That short distance is what lets the proposal offer company without imposing it.

Rooftop Pools and Glowing Courtyards Built Into the Daily Routine

The rooftop swimming pool, with swimmers holding foam noodles and seated residents beside the water under a timber canopy, places exercise and leisure side by side. Those who swim and those who watch share the same planted roof, which keeps participation flexible: no one has to be athletic to be part of the scene. Health is folded into recreation rather than isolated in a therapy wing.

The garden courtyard carries the same idea into the evening. A wooden bench, glowing yellow light posts and the curved translucent fin façade create a quiet, well-lit outdoor room for residents and visitors alike. It is precisely the kind of space the designers describe: somewhere for informal interaction, where a morning in the garden, coffee with friends and a later return to privacy can all happen within the same building.

Why This Project Matters

Elderly House makes a convincing case that the form of a building can shape the social life of its residents. The W-shaped plan is not a flourish; it is the mechanism that gives rooms views, breaks a very large institution into legible wings, and generates the garden pockets where everyday encounters happen. Combined with four flexible room types, the scheme treats aging as a range of situations rather than a single condition, allowing people to live alone, in pairs or with care as their needs evolve.

The open question is scale. A complex this large risks reading as a self-contained world, and future iterations could explore how the gardens, cafés and pools might connect to the surrounding neighbourhood so residents remain part of a wider community. Even so, the proposal's central principle is sound and worth repeating: senior living architecture succeeds when it offers choice, keeps landscape close at hand, and lets dignity rest on the freedom to decide how much of the day to share.

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Project credits: Elderly House Co-Life (uni.xyz).