Krebsestien Nursing Home
NAME OF PROJECT: Krebsestien
ASSIGNMENT: Invited competition
TYPE: Retirement home
CLIENT: Esbjerg Municipality
SIZE: Building: 9.700 ,2. Masterplan: 12.000 m2
LOCATION: Esbjerg, Denmark
YEAR: 2017-2022
STATUS: Winner of competition, construction ongoing
COLLABORATORS: GPP, SLA, Rambøll
TEAM: Marc Jay, Julie Schmidt-Nielsen, Simon Skriver, Ieva Vysniauskaite, Antonina Salmina, Marek Harnol, Kasper Munk, Jeppe Kiib, Alicja Krzeszewska, Corrado Galasso, Giovanni Simioni, Maximilian Rietschel, Alexandru Pavel, Anne Remme Jakobsgaard, Baptiste Caill, Sofie Brincker
WE Architecture has, in collaboration with GPP, Rambøll and SLA created a safe, comfortable nursing home in which to provide care to the future senior residents of the Esbjerg Municipality. Krebsestien is part of a new elderly-friendly neighborhood that offers a social environment. The concept of Krebsestien is established in support of a de-institutionalised retirement home environment, giving residents the comfortable feeling of living within their own home, yet receiving the care that they need within the town.
“The idea of the rooms is to combine inside and outside areas and create a heart where residents can come together as a community. The rooms are divided in an inside and outside section where residents get to experience nature in their everyday lives.”
The town is designed as a car free area, where residents can move around safely. A dementia home is located in the center of the town surrounded by small green areas and senior homes. The dementia home houses a mall section consisting of stores, cafes and a gym, which will function as the town’s main center and invite all residents in. Each building has an innovating common room covered with glass façades. The common rooms are all placed with a view of Fredskoven, allowing the residents physically to feel closer to nature. The idea of the rooms is to combine inside and outside areas and create a heart where residents can come together as a community. The rooms are divided in an inside and outside section where residents get to experience nature in their everyday lives.
The housings’ idiom is rooted in the functional Danish culture, this also being enhanced with a contemporary aesthetic. The development makes use of natural materials in the form of tiles, a timeless architectural expression that has been directly informed by the scale, rhythm and appearance of the context.