Ercilla Day Centre in Bilbao

Location: Bilbao
Status: Completed
Built Area: 366 m²

The Ercilla Day Centre is located in Bilbao, within an existing urban building adapted to provide a daytime care environment for older adults. The project transforms the premises into a clear, bright and recognisable interior, where architecture supports orientation, autonomy and everyday routines.

The design strategy is based on the use of colour, continuity and domestic references as architectural tools. In care environments for older adults, colour and contrast can help users identify routes, recognise areas and understand the function of different spaces. Here, yellow, orange and turquoise tones define zones, organise circulation and create visual anchors without relying on signage alone. Colour is not treated as decoration, but as part of the spatial system.

A continuous wall-furniture element articulates the whole centre. On one side, it integrates storage for the personal belongings of the day centre users, helping to keep the shared areas open and ordered. On the other, it allows the space to be personalised with photographs, objects and small displays that introduce a more domestic atmosphere. This built-in element also incorporates “window-benches”, where users can sit and connect with the street and the exterior, while in other areas it becomes a support for planting and interior greenery.

The project works with the existing industrial character of the building, keeping visible ceilings and technical services, and balancing them with warmer and more familiar elements: upholstered seating, plants, framed images and integrated furniture. Corridors are understood as active spaces rather than residual areas, including resting points, visual references and thresholds between more active and quieter zones.

Although the intervention does not rely on a specific structural or bioconstruction system, its sustainable approach is based on adaptive reuse. By transforming an existing urban premises, the project extends the life of the building and concentrates resources on the elements that most directly affect use: light, accessibility, storage, comfort and orientation.

In 2023, the project received recognition in the II Reconocimientos a las Buenas Prácticas en Atención Personalizada en los Cuidados de Larga Duración, promoted by the Diputación Foral de Bizkaia, in the category Architecture and Spatial Environment. The award recognised the good practice “Centro de día Ercilla: un ambiente amigable”, highlighting the role of architecture and interior atmosphere in creating a more supportive and friendly care environment.

Credits:
Architectural design: Ricardo Pariente & Eva Diego for Hyphen architects
Collaborators: Carlos Sanz
MEP design: Atei Consultores
General Contractor: Arko