The Corpus Christi Community Greenvale is a residential care facility that provides accommodation and support for marginalised older men with a history of homelessness, addiction, or complex health needs. A joint venture between Corpus Christi and Villa Maria Catholic Homes, the facility offers 90 safe, secure, independent-living beds.

From the outset the brief required a design forward solution that embraced lifestyle and mental health requirements. Our design centres around a human-scale concept that establishes welcoming, non-institutional residential options. Spatially, the new facility has been designed in ‘clusters’ that reflect homes, with bedrooms connected to communal living spaces. Stand-alone wings allow residents the freedom to create communities, with 7-8 residents per cluster, each radiating from a central amenity spine.

Our design embraced smart use of the available site and space. The new facility is made up of a two storey residential building & a stand alone facilities building with this density allowing for a generous amount of outdoor spaces and reinforcing the residential feel, offering a light and bright facility with through views that allow intuitive anchoring and wayfinding throughout the facility for natural orientation. This smaller overall footprint also allows for more capacity to introduce social amenities, while the adaptable design allows for potential future expansion.

The communal facilities are conceived as the heart of the village, were the residents can freely access an impressive space accommodating lounge, dining and Library which offer a wide range of activities. The colour and material palette was chosen specifically for wellbeing, while externally, we maintained a number of mature trees throughout the site, encouraging the use of the landscape to enhance livability.