Challenge

‘Solidariteit voor het Gezin’ is a non-profit association and with a workforce of 7000 it is one of the largest players in Belgium’s care sector. To reflect its vision of integrated homecare, the association wanted its first retirement home in West Flanders (Ostend) to be a real care hotel. Besides offering senior citizens top-level care, the client wanted to create a high-end living environment with furnishings to match. Timing and budget were strict requirements in connection with delivery of the project.

Solution

Bulvano drew on its extensive experience in the care sector. Together with the client and the well-known architect firm Buroll, we assembled a multidisciplinary team to give optimum substance to the uniqueness of the building in the shape of a boat, with walkways affording views of the Ostend Hippodrome and the Wellington Golf Course. The same goes for the interior: Bulvano helped to create the spatial plan and thanks to its international partners completed the furnishings in a very short time with high-end furniture appropriate to the ‘hotel vision’.

Result

The result was a totally atypical interior style for a retirement home. Residents and visitors enter the care hotel through a tastefully decorated lobby and even younger generations feel at home in the 98 rooms. The overall experience differs hardly at all from the identical adjacent building with luxury apartments. The only difference is that the rooms here are provided with modern high/low beds and other facilities appropriate to the needs of older people, yet without any reference whatsoever to a traditional retirement home. This allows the senior citizens to follow their own pace of life in style, just as they did in their former home.