Sun City Showa Kinen Koen
Tokyo

For the design of Sun City Showa Kinen Koen—a flagship senior living development for Japan’s continuing care retirement communities—San Francisco-based BAMO’s goal was to seamlessly blend the building with the surrounding Showa Memorial Park. “There aren’t that many countries building senior living communities this large that also feel intimate, comfortable, and friendly,” says BAMO principal Gerry Jue. Comprising 500 independent living apartments, a 90-bed nursing facility, a lounge, dining room, fitness studio, and spa, the community’s overall master planning lent itself to public spaces that wrap the landscape. Each major area features its own garden (“You feel like you’re out in nature,” Jue adds), while windows throughout ensure abundant daylight. BAMO also channeled the Japanese “borrowed scenery” concept of incorporating background landscape into the garden composition. For the interiors, natural colors and materials also reinforce the connection to the park, resulting in a place that appears more like a residentially appointed hotel than a retirement home.

Waterbrook Bayview
Sydney

When Waterbrook retirement community called on longtime residential designer Lorena Gaxiola to help craft their Bayview and Bowral locations, she instantly became enamored with the team’s passion and knowledge of their demographic. “I wanted to celebrate baby boomers,” she says, so she avoided tired senior living clichés for something a bit livelier and joyous. The Bayview outpost, for example, channels the lushness associated with Sydney’s Northern Beaches. “We took inspiration from the area’s flora and fauna,” the locally based designer says, repurposing timber into the interior architecture, using native sandstone to enhance the garden-like spaces to further Bayview’s indoor-outdoor lifestyle, and employing a timeless color palette for a sophisticated feel. “I think of where Andy Warhol, the Rolling Stones, or Iris Apfel could live,” she says. “[They are] my influencers.”