The new Calgary Bethany Care Centre’s small-home concept will give seniors a greater sense of community and help them feel less isolated, say two of the project’s key leaders.

The Bethany Care Society has broken ground on the new 420-suite seniors residence in the Hounsfield Heights-Briar Hill neighbourhood. Bethany Calgary, one of Alberta’s oldest care centres, has served families since 1945, but the current facility no longer meets modern care standards.

The facility is expected to help expand a model that is becoming more widespread in Canada after gaining popularity in Europe.

The project was influenced by post-pandemic design changes and the provincial government’s desire to improve care centre designs, Jennifer McCue, president of the Bethany Care Society, told Connect Canada CRE.

“There was a government decision to change our design guidelines, but it would be fair to say that that evolution was underway,” she said. “So, with the Bethany Calgary project, we looked at how to design small homes within a large building envelope.

“We’re replacing a 416-bed care centre, and the practicality of building stand-alone small homes in an urban area, simply related to land availability, is challenging.”

The 360,000-square-foot project will replace the existing 230,000-sf Bethany Care Centre that stands beside the development site.

The groundbreaking launched a long-awaited redevelopment project, partially funded by a $114-million commitment from the Alberta government. The project is designed to provide modern care for seniors and other adults with disabilities.

Designed by Zeidler Architecture, the new care centre will be set on the southeast corner of Bethany Calgary’s existing site and feature private rooms with ensuites, ensuring that all residents have their own personal spaces.

Bill Mitchell, a Zeidler partner based in the firm’s Calgary office, said the small-home model will shape the future of senior living design. Thus far, it is becoming more prevalent in Western Canada than in Ontario.

Bethany Calgary’s small-home structure will deploy groups of 14-room homes that share dining and living spaces, forming unique neighbourhoods with distinct aesthetics.

“I guess one of the questions is always: What is actually a small-home model?” he said. “Because they really do vary quite a bit from 10-resident homes to 18-bed homes. And then in Ontario, they’re larger. It’s definitely a shift that we’re seeing both from the care providers as well as from the government agencies that are directing some of these projects and and, especially, some of the funding,

The new Bethany Calgary Centre will be set on the southeast corner of the existing site and feature private rooms with ensuites, ensuring that all residents have their own personal spaces.

The facility will include amenities such as a bistro, outdoor courtyards, enrichment areas, and community gathering spaces, creating an inclusive environment for residents, families, and the broader community. The amenities are intended to help normalize the experience of aging.

The themed community spaces will enable residents to engage in activities and hobbies, as well as spaces to garden, bringing some of residents’ activities at their previous homes into their new one. Amid the loneliness epidemic, these spaces are considered key, as they encourage residents to be around other people.

Zeidler, in collaboration with the Bethany Care Society, has achieved its goal of creating a space that feels like a true home rather than an institutional space, said Mitchell.

The design has influences from the Hogeweyk Dementia Village in the Netherlands. Well-known within the industry, the Dutch care facility provides small-scale living while emphasizing quality of life and personal care to residents with dementia.

Over the past decade, many seniors care facility operators have aspired to move towards the Hogeweyk model because it seemed to be a model that normalized experience of, particularly, dementia and created a home-like environment where people live together with a sense of community, said McCue.

“Each home will be discrete, so it’ll have its own front door, its own kitchen, its own living room, its own laundry room, and 14 resident bedrooms with an ensuite bathroom as well as support spaces, because obviously we’re providing care there,” said McCue.

The planning process began more than 20 years ago as care models evolved and risks associated with aging infrastructure increased. According to McCue, the project will ensure that the society can continue to serve Alberta seniors in a modern, welcoming environment that truly reflects the group’s mission to create caring communities.

“One of the things that we saw when we were in Hogewyk was how much freedom the residents had within the facility, overall, in a safe environment,” said Mitchell. “They had complete autonomy over their ability to leave the homes, to walk around the facility.

“And, that’s what we’re trying to bring to Bethany as well, is that they have the individual homes. But one of the one of the things Jennifer has always talked about is: We don’t want to lock the doors. We want to have the residents have the opportunity to move freely within the building. We do have a larger facility so that we will need to move vertically through the building. But the idea is that the neighborhood spaces, the spaces within or outside of each of the individual homes, is area where the the residents can interact with one another. They can meet other residents within the facility, and they’re not isolated specifically to their their 14-bed home unit.”

The free-movement goal stems from Zeidler and the society’s desire to prevent the isolation that residents felt during the pandemic, he added.

Each floor will have a maximum of six homes, with the actual number varying by floor. Although the homes have separate doors, the doors are inside the building.

“One of the, one of the things we can’t do is mimic exactly what they have in the Netherlands, simply because of our climate,” said Mitchell.

Construction, targeted for completion by late fall 2027, will take place without disrupting current residents or healthcare operations.

The existing building will keep operating to ensure that sufficient care capacity remains in the system until the new facility is fully constructed and ready to occupy, said McCue.

No components of the existing facility will be included in the new one. The Bethany Care Society will determine the fate of the existing building at a later date.

“It is not suited for the the current models of care and long-term care,” said McCue. “It may simply be demolished it, but it really is something that the board will have to make a decision about.”

In addition to receiving government funding, the Bethany Care Foundation is launching a $20-million capital campaign to help finance the project.