Better quality of life and lower healthcare costs can go hand in hand
Activities for care residents van extend beyond reading and listening to music. With large greenhouse in the living areas, Zuideover and Lethenrode create a microclimate that allows residents to enjoy the outside world virtually year-round and even maintain plants and animals. The pinnacle of this approach is urban gardening, yielding vegetables that can be consumed in the house.
A residential care building can be designed in such a way that residents are encouraged and stimulated to make the most of each day, and to do so collectively. It has been proven that this approach reduces the demand for care, as happier residents require less attention, leaving the staff with more time to engage in other enjoyable activities with the residents. The living and working atosphere that arises from this also leads to better working conditions, making it easier to recruit staff. .
Close contact with the outside world with it’s daylight and nature are also essential for residents of a residential care building and contribute significantly to their appreciation of life. By allowing nature into the building. as in the case of Zuidoever, or by deeply embedding the building in nature, as with DSV in Katwijk, a logical and natural connection is established.