St. Joseph’s Home

Designed by SAA Architect (SAA), St. Joseph’s Home has won Silver in the healthcare category at the World Architecture News (WAN) Awards 2019 on 5 November 2019. This is the highest accolade received by a Singapore firm at the awards.

The Design

SAA designed and completed the redevelopment of the 139-bed nursing home into an integrated 412-bed nursing home in 2017. The design was guided by the Catholic Welfare Services’ philosophy in maintaining a person-centred home that can uphold the values of human dignity.

The architecture and landscape design of the nursing home create a space that enhances patient and visitor experience, while maximising engagement and operational efficiency for the staff.

“Our design approach focused on three key pillars—designing for community, mobility and dignity. Each aspect of the design places residents’ well-being at heart; providing for their mobility, engagement and comfort, and enhancing the total quality of care they would receive,” said Michael Leong, Director of SAA.

The redevelopment required SAA to retain an existing chapel and annex block, with the chapel as the spiritual heart of the nursing home. As such, the designers positioned the chapel at the centre of the nursing home, and all communal pockets were designed with a view of it.

Natural ventilation, daylight and sunshading are optimised to provide a comfortable home for the residents, which was done by positioning every ward at an angle determined by the prevailing winds and sunlight.

SAA also paid close attention to those residents with dementia as they are highly sensitive to their environment. Communal gardens, greenery-lined corridors, planters and vertical greenery were applied throughout the nursing home to create pockets of green spaces on every floor. This way, residents are able to enjoy fresh air, sunlight and greenery without having to go to the ground floor. This result is a ‘home in a garden’ with an ambience that is conducive for resting and healing.

St. Joseph’s Home is the first nursing home in Singapore to integrate a childcare centre into its programme. Facilities such as intergenerational playground with wheelchair friendly see-saw would hopefully spark social interactions between the residents and children. This would enable the children to learn and improve their social interaction, while enhancing the emotional well-being of the elderly residents.

“The centre creates a space where everyone can find a place to co-exist—the young, the older, the dying and the sick. This full-circle care model is where we can learn to embrace one another to live in harmony,” said Sister Geraldine Tan, Catholic Welfare Services.

– Construction+ Online

PROJECT DATA
Project: Redevelopment of St. Joseph’s Home
Location: 36 Jurong West Street 24 Singapore
Completion Date: December 2016
Site Area: 15,310.05 square metres
Gross Floor Area: 22,054.06 square metres
Number of Rooms/Units: 412 nursing home beds
Government Implementing Agency: Ministry of Health
Operator: Catholic Welfare Services Singapore
Architecture Firm: SAA Architects Pte Ltd
Principal Architect: Jeremy Aloysius
Interior Design Firm:  SAA Architects Pte Ltd
Principal Designer: Charles Arnal
Civil & Structural Engineer: Ronnie & Koh Consultants Pte Ltd
MEP Engineer: Bescon Consulting Engineers Pte
Quantity Surveyor: Arcadis Singapore Pte Ltd
Landscape Architect: Tulin Designs Pte Ltd
Green Building Consultant: Building System and Diagnostics Pte Ltd
Demolition Contractor: Aik Sun Demolition & Engineering Pte Ltd
Main Contractor: Vigcon Construction Pte Ltd
Images: Aaron Pocock Photography