AH Orr Lodge

Designed to adjoin an existing high care facility designed by ThomsonAdsett in 1992, this 60 bed low-care, ageing-in-place facility occupies the south western portion of a large suburban site.

The new facility occupies two street frontages and great care has been taken to ensure that this relatively large building does not appear as a monolith in the neighbourhood. The building is orientated to present as a series of terrace houses, with each pair of resident rooms presenting as a “house” to the street. This articulation is reinforced by the roof design.

Pedestrian routes around and through the site have been considered, resulting in the creation of an internal pedestrian “street” within the building. This provides access to the whole facility from the neighbourhood street at one end and the internal carpark at the other. This “street” also acts as the community activity zone and interface between the existing high-care Facility and the new low-care, ageing-in-place facility. This project received the Master Builders Association Award for Excellence for Aged Care Buildings.