2010
Maimonides Zentrum, a retirement home for the Jewish community in Vienna, Austria
A traditional wayfinding system can only partially fulfill its role in guiding people through a space, particularly in a building as complex as the Maimonides Zentrum, which is also designed for elderly people with limited physical and mental abilities. The visual and sensory perception of the various spaces thus takes on particular importance, going beyond functional wayfinding that consists solely of written information. Specific interventions were therefore developed in collaboration with the interior architects. The floors are distinguished through a color scheme, the inclusion of paintings from the collections of the Maimonides-Zentrum and the Jewish Museum of Vienna, and the display of objects provided by the Bundestheater in Vienna. Each floor is named after a day of the week and features nursery rhymes created specifically for the project by Ilse Kilic and Fritz Widhalm. Thus, each hallway and each living room has been individually designed based on themes drawn from the nursery rhymes, providing natural orientation for the residents.
Design Team — Ruedi Baur, Simon Burkart, Claudia Leuchs, Christina Poth Interior
Designer — Monika Heiss, Farbe & Design Nursery
Rhyme Texts — Ilse Kilic and Fritz Widhalm