Erstagården
Category
Location
Nacka, Stockholm, Sweden
Client
NREP
Collaboration
Reflex Architects
Contract period
2021
Area
9292 m2
Construction cost
? DKK
Image Credits
Kragh&Berglund
Kragh Berglund has designed the outdoor environments at the care and nursing home Erstagården for NREP, in Nacka municipality. The project included the renovation of courtyard environments for the care and nursing home and the nearby children’s hospice.
As part of a major renovation of the existing facilities, the outdoor areas got a much needed redesign with clearer path systems and a major increase in accessible outdoor areas by adding a greenhouse and a wooden deck that comes out from the slope around the house and wraps around an apple tree.
Large parts of the property are shared by a care and nursing home and a children’s hospice. The design of the outdoor environments around Erstagården is based on the differences and similarities of the two patient groups. It concerns accessibility requirements, areas for activity and play, social areas for both small and large groups, and places for meditation, tranquility, and proximity to nature.
Although the courtyard environment is shared by the groups it is not divided. Instead, the spatial design of plantings allows many to use the courtyard simultaneously without disturbing each other.
Since many of the patients spend large parts of the day in bed, the view of the courtyard from the windows in the patient rooms is of great importance. In rooms where the view faces a terraced retaining wall, the planting areas were designed with a great diversity of plant material to create plantings where new details can be discovered every day. In other patient rooms with large windows directly facing the courtyard, plantings with free-growing shrubs and perennials were used to provide privacy.
As the care-home has a special focus on nature-based therapy, plants with sensory and tactile qualities were selected along with traditional edible plants such as rhubarb and strawberries.
The centerpiece of the courtyard consists of custom-built planting benches. The planting areas serve as a potential meeting place across age boundaries.
Want to learn more?
Contact Maria Höök
mah@kragh-berglund.se
+46 73 778 87 06
