The house Charitas – St. Elizabeth Hospice, Lubica

Beneficiary:Spišská katolická Charita
Supplier:Chemkostav, a.s.
Construction duration:October, 2002 - November, 2004

Basic information

This new building is a multi-functional establishment designed to comply with the conditions of charitable and humanitarian nature. The care provided by a team of physicians, nurses, rehabilitation workers, attendants, psychologists, social-welfare, and clerical workers, as well several volunteers, help in a dignified way overcome the most difficult phase of man in the terminal stage of their life.

The House Charitas, which offers all-year-round tantalogical services (also) in form of bed hospice care (the capacity is eight single rooms with a possibility of adding an extra bed for relatives), has the house of social-welfare services attached (with the capacity of eight single rooms) and a retirement house (with seven single rooms).

The basis of the concept and the central element of the design is a two-storey glassed small-talk vestibule with a gallery. It is a spatial dividing (and connecting at the same time) element between the interior and the exterior (with a link to the water reservoir and the orchard). The composition is boosted by a tower with three storeys, which differs from the building by attaching a wooden facing of the façade.

The main building has three storey in the groundplan form of L. The vertical load-bearing system combines wall and pillar elements consisting of monolithic concrete. Horizontal structures (ceilings) for the monolithic ferro-concrete plates and beams. The attached buildings include two pedestrian walkways, decorative water reservoir, garden chapel, external basement storehouse for vegetables, and two access supply platforms.

All the floors and tiling in the rooms, offices, day-time premises, catering halls, the body-building hall and the lecture hall are designed with the purpose of minimizing the stepping noise, which has been achieved by alternating soft and hard materials.

Design award in the year 2005
The Association of Slovak Architects awarded the team of designers the Dušan Jurkovič Award for the design of St. Elizabeth Hospice in the village of Ľubica. The jury in awarding the prize considered several aspects – functional, operational, economic, town-planning, architectonic, and artistic-aesthetic.