Viskafors Residential for Elderly is a residential of 30 appartments and social spaces aiming to gain benefits of living closer together and to reduce the feeling of loneliness amongst elderly. Research prooves the correlation between improved health and the feeling of belonging and to make our elderly stay in good health longer is a gain for the hole society, as well as for the individual. A true win-win situation. A home is where the heart is and in the heart of this home there is a fir
Local
Sweden
Viskafors is a small town in the Borås municipality in the western part of Sweden. The project owner is Viskaforshem - the municipal housing company.
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
2022-11-01
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Brunnberg & Forshed Arkitektkontor AB Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Andreas Last name of representative: Svensson Gender: Male Nationality: Sweden Function: Architect Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Linnégatan 89 E Town: Stockholm Postal code: 11523 Country: Sweden Direct Tel:+46 8 617 61 79 E-mail:andreas.svensson@brunnbergoforshed.se Website:https://www.brunnbergoforshed.se/
Viskafors is a small town in western Sweden, a region with great industrial heritage, well known for high quality textile producers. It got its name from the river Viskan, the source of water power giving prosperity and growth to the town for decades. Due to industrial decline during the 1980:s and 1990:s many inhabitants lost their jobs and moved out, a fate for many small towns alike. But Viskafors thought bigger and higher of them selves and the municipal housing company acted with social responsability, by investing in design, architecture and sustainability to turn decline into progress. By realizing project after project with high end architecture and high quality materials and always with great care of social sustainability they managed to attract people to stay and even to make people move IN instead of moving OUT.
This important change led to change of self image. Architecture can strengthen the self image and this project is design to relate to the regions proud heritage where brick industrial building are common and the serrated roofs are something of a signature.
Viskafors Residential for Elderly is their latest project with the goal to offer a way of living for elderly who wants to live closer together. Many are still living in large houses, attractive for younger families living in too small appartments. By realizing this project a chain reaction av relovation is being made. Much research points at the importance of feeling part of a social community and that the sense of belonging is positive for the health which in turn is a good investment for the national economy. If you feel well, you stay healthuier, live longer without social care and the most important you live a longer and better life.
By consious investments the goal was to get more wider span of typologies in their stock of types of homes to rent. To make people stay in their hometown ang gain a sense of belonging in a community. And to feel proud of their home town.
Belonging
Placemaking
Health
Identity
Heritage
The need for social integration and the feeling of belonging is essential for humans. Architecture can support and facilitate a lifestyle where those needs are fulfilled. This project is based on research proving the correlation between experienced loneliness and illness, offering a variety of spaces for interaction and it completes the small city with a new typology of living. Belonging means to be included, not forced to move to get your needs catered for, as aging. When included, you feel belonging and responsible for environment, leading to real sustainability.
Managing a legacy from previous generations is fundamental for many people and investing in architecture can lead to positive impact for people´s self image. This project is designed to relate to local cultural heritage, aiming to recreate status and pride by attracting present and potentially new inhabitants.
To keep the increasingly aging population in good health is a tangible saving for all society. This project is designed to support good health by promoting social and physical activities, to reduce the risk of dementia by stimulating senses, but most important, the project aims to offer people the feeling of belonging.
Sustainability can – and should – be a part of identity for a society in progress, built with long lasting building materials, chosen to reduce impact on our climate based on Life Cycle Analysis. This project is designed to stand out and to be a role model for new buildings in the region, contrubuting to the legacy of Viskafors as a consius city who takes responsibility.
A sustainable perspective addresses the importance of taking care of local earnings already existing and developing them into strong qualities to sustain attraction. By relating the design to local cultural heritage this projects aims to recreate pride and confidence in a city affected by industrial decline. This project wants to strengthen individuals, community and society with sustainable architecture.
Architecture has the power to strengthen identity, to encourage and promote the sense of belonging, by relating to the place, its surroundings and its history. This project draws inspiration from the cultural heritage in this region, well known for textile producers for generations. Old, beautiful, industrial brick buildings can be seen here and there along the river Viskan. The serrated roof adds yet another signature silhouette to the landscape and the red bricks turn this house into a new sibling to the old ones. Bricks in combination of wood are the most common material in local architecture.
The sense of belonging provides good health. The house offers social spaces with great possibilities for neighbours to meet. A dining room has a small stage, a well equipped kitchen, an atelier is a place for creativity, a reading room for courses, studies, social gatherings and reading groups. A wooden span leeds from the highest level straight out in nature, offering even people dependent of wheel chairs to move just out into nature, being surronded by the old trees, gaining the overview of the location. The semi public entrance balcony gives space for a breakfast table and a chat with your neighbour. The private balcony is a place for privacy, yet in contact with the garden square below. An arranged walking loop around the house offers five different garden characters, to make even a short walk stimulating for senses. The spacious winter-garden with plants, post boxes and a fire place in the middle functions as entrance hall and makes space for social activities. Every part of the project is designed to give a sense of belonging and by choosing high quality materials this house can age as beautifully as its inhabitants.
The thirty appartments are all for rent making them accessible for people without savings. The owner is the municipal housing company with a public waiting list to get an apartment, as long as one part of the household is 65 years old as a minimum.
Many parts of the project promote social interaction between people increasing inclusion and the feeling of belonging to a social community. The new garden square in front of the house is a new public pace in the city that adds one more way to meet one another.
On the ground floor there are rooms for municipal daily activities for elderly, not just the people living in the house itself but for all elderly in the municipal, giving more opportunities for being together.
Many people living in Viskafors have spent their life here since early age and by realizing this project another - until now not existing typology of residential - has been added to ensure they can spend their old age without moving from the city.
By gathering older in increasing need of social care the contributions can be made more efficient, for more people and for a lower cost. But the most important gain is that this kind of project can reduce the felling of loonelines and support good health and life quality.
The sight is quite in center of Viskafors offering a range of service to ease a daily life. Many of the inhabitants have left oversized houses in the countryside making way for younger families in need of more spacious homes. The chain reaction of relocations is a gain for the whole society.
The sight was former a real waste space functioning as an oversized parking lot and it has transformed into a public garden square and a place for living and connecting with people. And the natural hill beside has become more accessible even for disabled people. Many of the inhabitants remember making excursions as a pupil, learning all the different tree species and since the house and the span has been built they can make excursions ounce more even om wheels and recreate the memories from their early ages.
The most significant stakeholder in this project is the municipal housing company. They have been engaged from first idea to realization, with insight that architecture and high quality materials can attract people to stay, or even to move here from other places. With great knowledge in economic calculations, life cycle analysis and with high ambitions in design, architecture and sustainability they have been a great speaking partner to the team of architects throughout the whole process.
A brave investment like this demands that local authorities and the politics are positive and one important thing to ensure that is to keep everyone informed during the process. There has been numerous information meetings. For example we as architects wanted to depart from the plan regulating the height of the building to be able to make the serrated roof. The peaks of the roof were actually a bit too high, but the purpose to relate to the place´s history and cultural heritage was accepted and even popular by the local authorities and the significant roof could be realized.
This kind of residential – called “Trygghetsboende” (safe and secure living) – is a typology with certain regulations, under local administration. If providing at least two squaremeters per apartment in a common space for municipal daily activities there are economic grants reserved to contribute to the total cost for the developer. So the project has been a teamwork with architects, developer, project owner, authorities and municipal as key players.
To make this project a beautiful, sustainable and social home for people many experts have been involved. The garden and close surroundings have been planned in collaboration with garden designer with expert knowledge in environmental psychology, older people´s wellbeing and what is needed to stimulate elderly, to keep them healthy and not affected by dementia as long as possible. The garden square, the walking loop, the sight on the hill are all designed with that purpose.
The winter-garden is another specific part of the project that needed expert advice, in order to balance the energy loss and energy gains and to make the climate proper in a natural way without the supply or the abduct of energy. Experts in building materials have been deeply involved to gain long term sustainability and to reduce technical maintenance during life cycle, keeping the rental levels down for the inhabitants. Also experts in climate, glass and ventilation have all been deeply involved from early stage to ensure the building will be a home for generations to came.
The appartments have all been rented from the first day and there is a significant waiting list, proving there is a big demand for this kind of homes. The project has received attention in media, amongst architects and other municipal housing companies as an example of a kind of residential project not yet common, but thought to be more and more requested as demographic shows that people tend to be older and the need of typologies between the stage of living by your own and living in a nursing home increase.
The numerous social spaces have been used for different purposes during the uptil now short period från realization until now. The winter-garden has been the place for a pop-up local, art gallery, meetings and vocal performances during qhristmas season. The day center is in use for various activities using the kitchen, dining room, stage and atelier.
This project contributes to increase interest in “Trygghetsboende” as a way of living that saves resources for society while offering life quality for individuals, where the value of feeling a sense of belonging is invaluable.
The amount and variation of social spaces supplementing the private appartments is rare as well as the ambition to support the sense of belonging and offer chance to social interacting in every stage of the process and in every part of the project.
Certain measure are exceptional for being a residential project in this small scale, buildt by a local municipal housing company with just a handful of employees. For example the span into the nature, the spatial social areas, the ambition to make space for public to use the garden close surroundings and the brave investment in high quality building materials.
By placing all post boxes in the winter-garden the project supports the idea to connect people on a daily basis, providing safety and security while knowing all your neighbours, resulting in social sustainability.
Roof spaces facing south are optimal for sun panels making energy in the future and by placing a garage under the building for cars needed for the project the requirement is taken care of without taking any space on the ground, making it possible to create a green and public garden instead.
By doing Life Cycle Analysis in an early stage and by prooving the long term positive effects of investing in sustainable materials the project challenges common perception on a buildings life cycle and loan rules which can affect the loan rules in the future, to the gain sustainability in reality.
The original source for this project is the fact that many old people suffer from the feeling of loneliness resulting in unhealth issues and the most profound purpose for realizing the project is to get old people to fell they belong to each other. We believe that will make people live longer in good health which is a win-win situation for society as well as individuals. So research is the base upon which the project is created.
Regarding the location we made analysis of the sight, remodeling the original plans for the development to create more places to meet each other. The result is a public garden square, instead of a parking lot, a walking loop with several destinations around the house, a span from the upper level into the green hill behind, a winter garden with spaces for social interaction and semiprivate balconies, aiming to offer many meeting opportunities with various atmosphere.
Sight-analysis also included solar ratio, views, axialities, geographical conditions and other common studies to make the best out of the sight.
The municipal building company made require assessment showing the need for broadening the base of typologies of their stock of apartments to make people the ability to stay within the city, even as aging and the result is this type of social residential for elderly. Another goal was to attract new inhabitants as well.
During the whole process it has been a vital and creative dialogue between architects and the project owner, affecting the design and the concept. Many options of the program have been investigated to get the optimal content, resulting in a mix of private homes, social spaces and localities for activities run by the municipal.
As research shows – loneliness is a crutial health risk effecting life quality for many people. The need for felling of belonging is fundamental for human beings. In Sweden which is a country with exceptional amount of single households leeding to unhealth, especially among elderly. More types of living as old – focusing on how to stay in good health are therefore in good need. There is a system of nursing homes for those who are in great need of care. But for those still on the edge of living without social assistancy and in need of help there is a lack of offers.
This project can make awareness of health and the gains of semi collective living. With savings of costs for society when coordinations of social stakes, such as medical transport, home care and daily assistance can be made easier in one concentrated place. And the high ambitions of sustainability can make the project into a raw models for many projects to come. And the actual facts that conscious investments in architecture and sustainability can be an attraction, making small cities in the countryside prosper.
We all need to raise awareness of climate changes such as global warming and the effect from the building sector in our society. All measures must be taken to reduce negative effects and if in need of building something at all, the projects must be sustainable for generations and to contribute to developing our ways of living. And living closer, sharing time, space and things is necessary to reduce our footprint. The social and collective aspects of this project addresses this fact. Social spaces contributes to democracy, information exchange and consciousness on all levels.
On a more technical level the design offers energy efficiency. For example, the roof is optimal for sun panels and the semi temeratured winter garden is heated mostly with sun. The location is close to a bus station and a train station and with in a few minutes walk to shops and services to reduce the need for transports by car. The sight was former a parking lot and by transforming it into a social space and homes for people it contributes to security, more eyes on the street and a wider customer base for local business.
An aging population is a demografic challenge and to focus on health issues is a gain for all society.
