“How and where will I live when I grow old, when I need assistance or care?” To those who ask this question, the answer will unlikely involve relocating directly from one’s own home to a care home. For the redevelopment of the Tergooi Blaricum hospital site, the team of Karres en Brands | Studioninedots conceives a living domain between the ‘home’ and ‘care institution.’ The team presented a clear vision that integrates the program into the landscape and into the village of Blaricum and approaches the new functions with a human scale. After participating in two competition rounds, the team was selected by Projectvennootschap Blaricum for the integrated development of the site.

Towards a living/care landscape
When the medical functions of Tergooi Blaricum relocate to the new location in Hilversum in 2023, the eight-hectare hospital site will be vacated. Blaricum municipality aims for the site to be redeveloped for care housing, housing and a regional medical center. During the research phase, Karres en Brands and Studioninedots integrated landscape, urban design and architecture to explore the potential of the site. They imagined a vision of a village, a community, in a natural setting where care and the carers are never far away. This quality can be achieved with adaptable housing that is able to accommodate new co-residents (for example a partner, child, parent, carer), and with providing housing for care professionals. The design of the landscape encourages shared outdoor living. The forested site forms a new link in the natural, spatial, infrastructural, energetic and social networks of the region.

In the coming months, INSPIRE Real Estate, Rosewood Group, Karres en Brands and Studioninedots will invite locals and stakeholders to contribute to fine-tuning the vision on this new living/care landscape in Blaricum.