Nursing home and a day-care centre in a single building
Gauerslund Community Center
Gauerslund Community Center is the first construction project in Denmark to combine a nursing home and a day-care centre in a single building. The project, which is expected to be finalised in 2023, shows how we can rethink the way institutions and public buildings are built in the future to bring people together across generations while providing added value in everyday life.
- Country
- Denmark
- Client
- Vejle Municipality
- Year
- Ongoing
- Services
- Architectural and engineering consultancy, building design
Activity centre for the entire area
Gauerslund Community Centre is a unique project that will help to increase cohesion in the local area in Vejle. Many Danish care centres already involve visits from local kindergartens with great success, and the shared experiences are rewarding for both children and the elderly. The vision of the project is to create a building whose design will support meetings and interaction between children, nursing home residents and the rest of the city. A large activity centre will therefore be placed at the centre of the project, where nursing home residents, care staff, day care centre, guests and citizens from the rest of the city can gather for café visits, creative workshop days, bingo or market days – and meet in natural contexts.
Common outdoor areas with well-being and health in focus
The outdoor areas of the community centre are designed with a focus on ensuring that the areas can be used by many different users during the course of a day. For example, the outdoor areas at the day-care centre, which are designed with activity elements, can be used as playing fields and mountain bike trails that can be used by the day-care centre during the day or by children from the nearby residential area and the city’s school. In addition, the areas can also be used as balance and motor skills tracks for exercisers passing by the area on their way through the city, while a possible zoo will be of great pleasure and benefit to the children of the day-care centre, the residents of the nursing home and the families of the city.
Sustainable Development Goals as a screening and design tool
In the development of Gauerslund Community Centre, Sweco’s architects and engineers have screened the entire project in relation to the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Initiatives are incorporated that to a greater or lesser extent contribute to 15 of the 17 SDGs in a Danish context – e.g. Goal 11 on ‘Sustainable cities and communities’ and Goal 13 on ‘Climate action’, where work is being done on rainwater harvesting, small-scale food production and biodiversity.
