Bretonneau Hospital
The Bretonneau Geriatric Hospital is a new concept, accommodating elderly people in Paris, in a place stamped with an urban quality yet respectful of privacy. An internal street runs through it, bringing together spaces for people to meet – the hairdressing salon and the cafeteria – and with easy access to them from each of the pavilions. The medical care units are arranged like houses, each accommodating some fifteen people. Shapes, materials and layout recreate a domestic feel, essential for helping patients to get their bearings.
Providing urban integration and an urban-like interior, pavilions almost on the scale of family homes, and the modernity of a contemporary hospital facility, the project was based on an existing environment and a specific need. The city is opening itself up to elderly people within a high-performance establishment which, far from excluding them, is integrating them once more into a comprehensive social practice.