Fairvern Long-term Care Home is a 160-bed residential care facility operated by the District of Muskoka. It replaces an existing 76-bed facility of the same name on a different site and includes in its programme a new community component as well as a new childcare centre.
The newly redeveloped Fairvern takes inspiration from its rural setting, featuring local materials such as granite and a landscape design in keeping with the Muskoka landscape. The building sits on a challenging site with an 8.5-meter grade differential and a protected marshland at its north end. It was designed to work with the sloping topography as much as possible. The resulting plan achieves several important objectives. The first are walkout conditions at both Levels 1 and 2. The second are a series of secured courtyards that animate the building and offer amenity to the residents and staff. The third is an extended perimeter that can accommodate each of the resident bedrooms and offer these bedrooms direct views outdoors. The fourth are more intimate 13-14-bed clusters within each 32-bed Resident Home Area that support a small home care model. And the fifth is a service core that is an easy distance from even the furthest resident bedrooms. This core accommodates building-wide resident common areas as well as staff administration and support space. Throughout the building, the design privileges staff wellness by ensuring all spaces have direct access to daylight and views to the outdoors. Where this was more difficult to achieve, as in the case of the centralized laundry facility, skylights and glazed partitions were added to ensure access to natural light.
Ongoing
Long Term Care
84,950 sq. ft.