Rudolfsheim Residential Care Home

On the property of the former Empress Elisabeth Hospital (Kaiserin Elisabethspital) in Vienna's 15th district, a new home for 328 elderly people in need of care was built on an almost square ground plan nearly encompassing one hectare.

The residential care home is divided into twelve wards with a total of 284 rooms, a little restaurant area as well as a public kindergarten designed for five groups of children. The cube circumscribing this residential care home is comprised of a basement storey, a ground floor and three upper floors. Apart from two little roof terraces, four generous and adequately decorated courtyards provide a quiet play, relaxation and therapy area separated from road noise.

The core of the concept are the large community areas grouped around the courtyards. This turns these access areas into communication areas – into market places with varied lingering qualities (dining areas, places to rest and retreat, resident arcades, play zones, walking courses, etc.). This yields a number of different options for walks, restricted to one ward or incorporating several wards, and offers multi-faceted views of the garden courtyards and the cityscape.

The exceedingly tight construction schedule was met via the use of installation blocks (Instabloc) and precast component solutions in the area of the loggia slabs and balustrades. 

After structural work had been completed after some nine months of construction time, just ten months were left for finishes. More than 32,000m² of gross floor area were virtually completed in just 19 months of construction to allow for multiple inspection bodies to start with the technical certification of the facilities relevant to safety and hygiene. After this phase, a contractually agreed six-week trial operation was started three months prior to handover and completed on schedule.

Ground area: 13,700m²
Built-up area: 7,830m²
Gross floor area: 32,500m²
Residential care home floor space: 28,700m²
Kindergarten floor space: 1,100m²
Outside facilities: 6,300m²