Kenyuen, Home for the elderly

In this space people who have long lived in the rhythms of the life cycle in close contact with the sea can stand between the Ocean and the sky firm on the ground and can have experience of changes of the natural landscape and the seasons. Especially this place remind them of precious memories of their life with the sea, at the same time give them the opportunity to penetrate into their own existence.

The site is located on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean at the southernmost point of the Japanese mainland. This facility is specially designed for the elderly in need of nursing care. While staying here in a long term, they can receive medical treatment and rehabilitative training to help them convalesce and regain the fullest measure of health, as well as plenty of nursing care. Eventually this facility should lead them back home to a normal life.

Having the pleasant experience of changes of the seasons with magnificent views of the sea and the sky moment by moment, while having the affluent experience of transition of the times and spaces inside and outside this facility, would remind the elderly of their own memories with the sea.

Consequently the elderly would feel actually their existences and get the desire to relive in their mind. We have tried to bring this facility into existence to be the background of such experiences.

The expanded Z-shaped building has being laid by the axis from the mountains north to the sea south. Along to this Z-shaped architecture, the vast land has being divided into a pair of L-shaped fields; one is the approach to the entrance facing the mountains and the other is the garden covered with lawn facing the ocean. At once transparent space has being created in the middle section of the Z-shaped building, to produce a sense of free spatial flow from the mountain to the ocean via glazed windows.
With the placement along the axis of this site, the building itself orchestrates varied effects and relationships and achieves our goal of creating a therapeutic environment in complete harmony with magnificent scenery.