Project Sectors
HISTORY
Choices in Community Living (CICL) is a non-profit organization that offers assisted living services with a reputation for exceptional care, diligence, and support for residents, families, and staff. CICL provides housing and care for people with dementia, ensuring they remain safe, comfortable, and connected to the community. Reimagine was invited to create a feasibility study for a new building that would replace an existing facility called West Park Lodge in Red Deer, Alberta. This new facility will be called the Care Village.
VISION
The Care Village is a thoughtful and compassionate response to meet the needs of residents across broad demographics with varied requirements for dementia care. It represents a new model for community living that raises the bar for care, not just in Alberta but across Canada. Its materiality, nostalgic form, and senses-driven design allow the Care Village to offer a healing touch for residents, staff, families, visitors, and the community.
WELL-BEING, COMFORT AND CARE
The Care Village envisions new opportunities to support loved ones with dementia and offers a new typology for care. It prioritizes the health of the residents and staff, offering a high quality of life and facilitating a sense of community by providing thoughtfully-designed spaces that feel familiar, comforting, and engaging.
DEMENTIA CARE BY DESIGN
The design considers that architecture can facilitate healing by engaging all seven senses. Each aspect of the Care Village results from thoughtfulness, intentionality and purpose.
It consists of 72 bachelor units, grouped into six households, that ultimately comprise a village. Careful consideration was given to aligning the facility's scale to the scale of the human beings living inside.
The Care Village is adjacent to a natural wetland and a forested gully and leverages its site, landscape, views and orientation to optimize sustainable strategies and human comfort. Its amenities include a café open to the public, a hair salon, a store where residents can shop free of charge, a greenhouse, a post office, and other outdoor activity spaces. These opportunities allow residents to live with dignity, surrounded by familiar experiences and opportunities.
