Dove Tree

Dove Tree Aged Care Facility sits within Sinnamon Park, 14 kilometres from the Brisbane CBD. The site has a strong connection to established vegetation and Jindalee Creek. The naturally occurring and maintained vegetation affords a charming identification as a bushland setting and was a strong driver in the design of a building connected to nature, reinforcing site understanding and sense of place.

The project is comprised of the following components:

• A seven storey development (including one level of services and two levels of basement carpark)
• 144 bed aged care accommodation (dementia integrated)
• Central Building housing Administration and Resident’s Community Activities
• Community Facilities and Gardens
• Extensive landscaped gardens integrated into the building’s design

The Model of Care is based on a non-prescriptive philosophy centred on eliminating loneliness, helplessness and boredom in residential aged care by addressing both the physical and emotional environment. Integral to every element of the design is the sense of home, warmth, community connection, freedom of choice, independence, where possible, and resident access to resources and activities.

A “high-rise” building, albeit set into a hillside, runs the risk of appearing and feeling institutional in nature. This is a residential facility and therefore should feel residential in character. It is designed to be resort-like in style, and absolutely unlike a hospital. The project is broken up into five distinct buildings connected by transparent or translucent bridge links and arranged to form a loop around a central open courtyard. The buildings are pulled away from each other and slightly skewed in order to break down the mass of the whole and to nestle it more snugly in the landscape of the heavily treed hillside.