- Welfare Architecture as a City -

Since the 20th century, welfare facilities have been spatially standardized under the guise of “efficiency,” shaped by the rationalization of nursing, management, and administration. Long corridors, uniform private rooms, and functionally isolated communal areas have become the dominant typology.

These spatial forms are premised on a body image defined by institutional logic, stripping away the complexity of everyday life and the spatial desires of the individual.

This project begins by dismantling such rigid formalism, proposing the idea that a welfare facility is, in essence, a city for its residents. For those who reside within, the facility is not merely a place of care but constitutes the entirety of their daily lived environment.

Accordingly, the spatial organization incorporates a layered sequence of zones—from the Private (individual rooms), through Semi-private (window-side nooks), and Semi-public (a covered communal living room), to the Public (lounge and dining area). These intermediary spaces are designed to create a gradation of place, enabling nuanced transitions of behavior and atmosphere.

Each of these spatial layers serves not only a functional role, but also acts as an architectural apparatus that mediates social relationships and bodily gestures—akin to alleys, courtyards, or plazas in a city.

Throughout the plan, subtle overlaps of sightlines, light, and thresholds are intentionally composed to generate soft boundaries and spatial permeability. Rather than organizing space solely by function, the project aims to construct a multi-layered architecture where the textures of time and life can accumulate, giving rise to an alternative urbanity within the realm of care.