△ 上海国华·合悦家国际康养社区

Shanghai Guohua Heyuejia International Senior Living Community

过去的十多年中，康养社区实践大多遵循“远郊大盘”的开发逻辑，以低密+自然资源为核心特色，随着长者需求的迭代，部分社区逐渐显露出难以回避的痛点：子女探望动辄单程两小时以上；社区长者与城市公共服务、熟人社交圈层逐渐脱离。想在城市中心寻找社区的时候，才发现市区中基本都是机构，活力社区屈指可数，这种需求和配置的错位催生出了一个新的命题“回归城市”。

2022年上海桃浦国华合悦家项目的设计启动，给了我们一次打造城市化养老社区样板的实践机会，时至今日，我们依然很钦佩业主方在选址上的前瞻性和旗舰型活力社区定位的精准度。

Over the past decade and more, senior living communities in China have largely followed a "large suburban development" model, defined by low density and access to natural resources. As the expectations of older adults have evolved, however, the limitations of this model have become increasingly apparent: a one-way family visit can take more than two hours, while residents may gradually lose contact with urban public services and their established social networks. Those seeking a genuine community in the city centre often find that most available options are institutional facilities, with vibrant, community-oriented alternatives remaining rare. This mismatch between demand and provision has given rise to a new proposition: a return to the city.

The design of Guohua Heyuejia in Taopu, Shanghai, began in 2022, offering us an opportunity to develop a prototype for an urban senior living community. Even today, we remain deeply impressed by the client's foresight in selecting the site and by the precision of its positioning as a flagship, activity-oriented community.

△ 项目作为桃浦创智城核心的重要配套投用

The project opened as a key supporting facility in the heart of Taopu Smart City

当时我们就有一个判断：未来的养老社区规模将趋于适中，成熟的城市公共配套资源能很好的滋养到社区；社区也一定是相对开放的，这样入住的长者才能充分自由的去享受到城市配套资源的便利，而自由选择的权利被尊重恰恰是长者主动选择并认可社区的基石。

因此我们构想了一个关于“理想社区”的模型：500人左右的规模、围合型的社区感布局、全架空的首层空间、丰富多变的空间体验、面向城市的开放配套和对周边辐射的服务配套……

Our judgement at the outset was clear: future senior living communities would tend towards a more moderate scale, allowing mature urban amenities to nourish everyday community life. They would also need to remain relatively open, so residents could freely enjoy the convenience and richness of the city around them. Respect for the freedom to choose, we believed, would become the foundation on which older adults actively select and identify with a community.

We therefore envisioned a model for an "ideal community": a population of approximately 500 residents; an inward-looking layout with a strong sense of neighbourhood; a fully open ground floor; diverse and changing spatial experiences; amenities open to the city; and services capable of extending into the surrounding district.

△ 一个500人左右规模围合型布局的“理想社区”的模型得以实现

A model for an "ideal community" with around 500 people has been realized.

四年的过去，桃浦创智城已经是颇具规模的普陀新一代区域核心，便捷的交通体系和丰富的城市配套一一兑现，国华合悦家也从图纸上的前瞻构想变成了如今运营一年半余的鲜活社区，越来越多的长者从远郊机构迁入这里。

在AI信息化的时代浪潮里，运营方携手华为开发了独具特色的数智化健康管理平台，打造了全域全时的数智社区，成为业内第一个拥抱AI、启用AI战略来管理的养老社区，实现从传统照护到数字化康养的升级，在运营方精心的经营下，我们许多关于“理想社区”的设计构想也得以兑现，并逐渐呈现出超越设计预期的状态。

Four years on, Taopu Smart City has grown into a substantial new-generation urban centre for Putuo District. Its convenient transport network and diverse public amenities have gradually become reality. Guohua Heyuejia, once a forward-looking idea on paper, has likewise become a lively community that has now been in operation for more than eighteen months, attracting an increasing number of older adults who have moved here from suburban institutions.

Amid the rapid rise of AI and digitalisation, the operator worked with Huawei to develop a distinctive digital health-management platform and a community-wide, around-the-clock intelligent service system. As the first senior living community in the sector to embrace AI and adopt an AI-led management strategy, the project marks a shift from conventional care towards digitally enabled wellness and senior living. Through the operator's thoughtful management, many of our original ideas for an "ideal community" have been realised and, in some cases, have evolved beyond what the design initially anticipated.

01/精巧的社区感：让长者乐意停留的设计逻辑

A Delicately Scaled Community: Designing Places Where Residents Want to Stay

△ 多层级的庭院系统

Multi-level courtyard system

1.38万平方米的用地，要容纳 4.1 万平方米的总建筑体量，压力不言而喻。在空间尺度考量上，我们没有刻意追求开阔宏大，具有强烈视觉冲击力的状态，而是化用《园冶》“巧于因借，精在体宜” 的造园思路，将常规项目中的 “集中式大配套” 的做法打散重组：西侧的餐饮社交区、下沉庭院的运动报告厅、护理裙楼的医疗康复区，三大功能板块通过双层连廊系统串联。连廊的转角处、露台上，我们特意设置了一些 “记忆锚点”，不仅创造更多偶遇与交流的机会，也让长者在园中溜达闲逛中，形成趣味空间记忆的串联，获得一个更大更丰富的空间印象。南北楼栋首层采用全架空形式，将地面空间完全让渡给景观与公共活动，二层形成一个独立的串联各楼栋的交通闭环，架空层没有设置固定的功能分区，而是作为 “非正式社交容器”交给长者去定义，保留了足够的使用弹性。结合打造三级立体花园系统：中心下沉庭院、裙房屋顶花园、四层养护楼屋面花园，不同标高的绿地相互借景，在高处远眺，400米外的桃浦中央绿地仿佛都融入了社区的景观体系。原本可能压抑的小型高密度社区，变成了一步一景的 “立体园林”。

The site covers only 13,800 square metres, yet it accommodates a total floor area of 41,000 square metres. 

The pressure on spatial planning was considerable. Rather than pursuing grand, open spaces or dramatic visual impact, we drew on the classical garden-making principle from The Craft of Gardens: "ingenuity lies in borrowing from context; refinement lies in fitness to place." The conventional model of a single, centralised amenity hub was broken down and reorganised into three principal zones: dining and social spaces to the west, sports facilities and a lecture hall around the sunken courtyard, and medical and rehabilitation functions in the podium of the nursing building. These programmes are connected through a two-level circulation system.

At corners of the connecting corridors and on terraces, we deliberately introduced a series of "memory anchors". They create opportunities for chance encounters and conversation, while helping residents form a sequential memory of the community through everyday wandering. In this way, a relatively compact site is perceived as a larger and more varied spatial world.

The ground floors of the north and south residential blocks are fully open, returning the entire ground plane to landscape and public activity. A separate circulation loop on the second floor links the buildings. The open ground-floor spaces were not assigned rigid functions; instead, they were offered to residents as "informal social containers", retaining sufficient flexibility for changing forms of use.

This strategy is combined with a three-level garden system: the central sunken courtyard, the podium roof garden, and the roof garden above the four-storey nursing building. Landscapes at different elevations borrow views from one another. From the upper levels, Taopu Central Green Space, 400 metres away, appears to merge into the community's own landscape system.

△ 下沉式庭院 Sunken courtyard

△ 打造长者乐意停留的“立体花园”

Creating vertical gardens where seniors enjoy spending time.

我们始终认为社区的安全感来源于一种不刻意、有温度的社区氛围，让长者在其中感受到尊严与归属，实现长者“乐意呆”的目标。

项目运营数据显示，架空层日均使用人次约超120人次，社区半数社团活动在此自发开展；多层花园实行分时段分流使用，日间自理长者在中心庭院散步聊天，康复训练群体则在屋顶花园进行锻炼。

运营反馈证实了设计中一些带包裹感的小尺度角落的使用率远高于中心集中区域，这也侧面印证了我们对“个人领地感”的判断：去机构化的核心，是在集体空间中守护个体的舒适边界。

What might otherwise have become an oppressive, high-density compound was transformed into a layered garden in which each step reveals a different view.

We have always believed that a sense of safety in a community comes from an unforced and humane atmosphere—one that allows older adults to experience dignity, belonging and, quite simply, a desire to stay.

Operational data shows that the open ground-floor spaces receive more than 120 visits per day on average, and that approximately half of the community's club activities now take place there spontaneously. The multi-level gardens are used at different times of day: independent residents walk and talk in the central courtyard, while rehabilitation groups exercise on the roof garden.

Operational feedback also confirms that small, sheltered corners are used far more frequently than large central areas. This supports our original understanding of the need for a sense of personal territory: the essence of de-institutionalisation lies in protecting individual comfort and boundaries within shared space.

02/前置的弹性：为运营的灵活需求预留接口

Anticipatory Flexibility: Building in Capacity for Changing Operational Needs

△ 护理院沿街界面

Street-facing facade of the nursing building随着社区的长期运营，康养社区的住户会逐渐老去，设计需要考虑社区自我更新的能力，使其能伴随长者共同成长。所以，我们在设计之初就摒弃了“功能固化”的思维，将“可变性”作为核心原则去评估整个设计的空间骨架，在尺度上做充分预留。康养项目中比较具有共性的一个痛点是长者因机能变化，会面临需要从已经适应的活力公寓迁入护理区的情况，这个过程是被动和无奈的。因此，产品的户型设计预留了充足的改造空间：未来将转化为介助公寓的楼栋从管线、荷载、层高空间尺度都按照护理用房标准设计，必要时无需大规模土建改造，即可增设需要的适老设备。这种 “原地养老” 的模式，既能避免长者因更换居住环境而产生的焦虑与不适，也大大降低了运营方的改造成本。据悉，目前案内已有多套自理公寓随住户身体机能变化，成功转化为轻度照护的房间。

As a senior living community continues to operate, its residents inevitably grow older. The design must therefore support the community's capacity for self-renewal, allowing it to evolve alongside them. From the beginning, we rejected the idea of permanently fixed functions. Instead, adaptability became a core principle for evaluating the spatial framework, with sufficient dimensional allowances built into the design.

One of the most common challenges in senior living is the need for residents to move from an independent-living apartment, to which they have already become attached, into a nursing area as their physical capabilities change. The transition is often involuntary and emotionally difficult. For this reason, the apartment design reserves ample scope for future conversion. Buildings intended to become assisted-living accommodation in later phases were designed from the outset to nursing-room standards in terms of service systems, structural loads, floor-to-floor heights and spatial dimensions. Necessary age-friendly equipment can therefore be added without major structural work.

This model of "ageing in place" helps residents avoid the anxiety and discomfort caused by relocation, while significantly reducing future conversion costs for the operator. Several independent-living apartments have reportedly already been successfully adapted into light-care rooms as residents' needs have changed.

△ 拓展后的公共用餐空间

Expanded communal dining space

△ 公共客厅

Public Living Room

△ 舒适的居住空间

Comfortable residential interiors

配套设施功能同样保留了弹性，实际运营过程中，部分活动空间根据阶段性需求已转为认知症日间照料空间。走廊与过渡空间同样暗藏考量：我们将交通通道设定为重要的动态社交“发生器”，在转折处、窗边凹位提前预留了驻足和增设设施的尺度。实际运营状态里，这些区域自然成为长者聊天、休憩的高频社交节点。看似偶然的“激活”，实则是设计对非正式社交行为的提前回应——在社区中，没有纯粹的交通空间，每一寸路径都应是生活的容器。

The shared amenities were designed with the same degree of flexibility. During operation, some activity rooms have already been converted into daytime care spaces for residents with cognitive impairment.

Corridors and transitional spaces also contain deliberate design provisions. Circulation routes were conceived as dynamic social "generators", with sufficient space reserved at turns and window bays for pausing, sitting and adding future facilities. In use, these locations have naturally become high-frequency places for conversation and rest. Their apparent "activation" is not accidental; it reflects the design's early response to informal social behaviour. In this community, there is no such thing as purely functional circulation—every part of a route can become a vessel for daily life.

△ 大厅 Lobby

△灵活多变的多功能活动空间

Flexible and versatile multifunctional activity space

△ 具备社交与休憩功能的走廊

Corridor with social and rest functions

03/生活的补完：留白处长出的新旅程

Life Completes the Design: New Journeys Emerging from the Unfinished

△ 立面   facade

社区真正主人是入住的长者，和运营的服务人员，以及管理者，项目的成长性也逐渐被使用者激发：原本作为备用空间的留白区域，被长者们改造成小型书画角、旧物交换站；原本的庭院步道，因长者自发的晨练路线而改变，形成了更贴合使用习惯的动线形态：餐厅空间在逐步拓展以适应更多样的就餐环境的需求。

我们刻意在空间设计中保留了一定的“留白”，交给社区的主人们根据他们的生活需求充分发挥创造力，它们没有被视作对设计的修正，而是被接纳为空间生命力的延伸——我们造的是一个底稿，而长者们用自己的生活，完成了最动人的画卷。

The true owners of a community are its residents, service staff and management team. Over time, the project's capacity for growth has been activated by its users. Areas originally kept in reserve have become small calligraphy and painting corners or second-hand exchange stations. Courtyard paths have shifted in response to residents' self-organised morning exercise routes, creating movement patterns more closely aligned with everyday habits. Dining areas have gradually expanded to accommodate more varied ways of eating and gathering.

We intentionally left a degree of "unfinished space" within the design, giving the community's users room to exercise their own creativity in response to changing needs. These adaptations are not treated as corrections to the architecture, but as extensions of its vitality. What we created was a base drawing; through their own lives, the residents have completed its most moving picture.

△ 长者入住后

Life after residents moved in

△ 架空层的使用随运营反馈做出调整 

The use of the elevated floor will be adjusted based on operational feedback.

04/城市的礼物：反哺片区的康养样本

A Gift to the City: A Senior Living Prototype That Gives Back to Its District

△ 晚餐时的景观餐厅一隅A corner of the scenic restaurant during dinner.

从城市区域的角度，作为桃浦智创城首个落地的康养配套，国华・合悦家的意义早已超越了一个单纯的养老社区。它用实际表现证明，城芯康养可以成为片区的活力新的引擎：项目 1000 平方米的社区食堂与便民活动中心，常态化向周边 3 个社区开放，累计服务周边居民超 2 万人次，补齐了桃浦片区老龄便民服务的短板。

据悉，运营投用至今，社区全年落地近千场社群活动，开设二十余门常态化兴趣课程，55% 的入住长者为普陀、长宁、静安本地退休教师、医生、公务员。很多原本互不相识的老人，在这里结成了固定的牌友、舞伴、同窗。相比于动辄上千人的大型康养社区，这个 500 人的小社区，实现了更紧密的邻里联结和更高的社群活跃度，实践和验证了我们对于理想社区规模的探索。

运营一年，项目先后获评上海市五星级养老机构、普陀区医养结合示范单位，设计成果斩获法国设计奖金奖等荣誉，已成为中心城区精致康养的标杆案例。

At the urban scale, Guohua Heyuejia has long since exceeded the role of a single senior living community. As the first completed senior living facility in Taopu Smart City, it demonstrates that an urban-core senior living community can become a new engine of neighbourhood vitality.

The project's 1,000-square-metre community dining hall and convenience activity centre are regularly open to residents from three surrounding neighbourhoods. Together, they have served more than 20,000 visits, helping address a shortage of accessible services for older adults in the Taopu area.

Since opening, the community has hosted close to 1,000 social activities annually and offers more than twenty regular interest-based courses. Fifty-five per cent of residents are retired teachers, doctors and civil servants from Putuo, Changning and Jing'an districts. Many people who had never met before moving in have formed regular card groups, dance partnerships and study circles. Compared with large senior living developments accommodating well over a thousand residents, this community of approximately 500 has achieved closer neighbourly ties and a higher level of social participation, validating our exploration of an ideal community scale.

Within its first year of operation, the project was recognised as a five-star senior care institution in Shanghai and as a demonstration project for integrated medical and senior care in Putuo District. Its design also received a Gold Award from the French Design Awards, confirming its status as a benchmark for refined senior living in the urban core.

△ 用餐场景 Dining setting

△ 丰富的活动安排

A rich programme of community activities

05/结尾：三年，一个起点

Conclusion: Three Years, A Starting Point

△ 社区入口Main community entrance

回望上海国华合悦家的三年营造，那些被验证的弹性、被喜爱的角落、被补完的留白，共同构成了这个社区最珍贵的底色。建筑会随时间老去，但生活在其中的活力与美好永远新鲜。对于每一个项目我们能做的最好的事，就是创造一个能让故事自然发生的场所，然后安静地退到幕后，观察着它慢慢的自我成长，相信使用者才是空间最终的塑造者。

国华・合悦家的故事日新月异，而我们关于理想社区的探索，也依然在前进……Looking back on the three-year process of shaping Shanghai Guohua Heyuejia, the flexibility proven through use, the corners embraced by residents and the spaces completed by everyday life have together formed the community's most valuable foundation. Buildings inevitably age, but the vitality and beauty of the lives they contain can remain forever fresh.The best thing we can do for any project is to create a place in which stories can arise naturally—and then step quietly into the background, watching as it gradually grows on its own. Ultimately, it is the people who use a space who become its final designers.The story of Guohua Heyuejia continues to change with each new day, and our exploration of the ideal community continues to move forward…

△ 接待大厅Reception lobby

△ 恒温泳池

Heated indoor swimming pool

△ 长者健身房

Residents' fitness room

| 图纸

△ 总图 site plan

△ 首层平面 1F plan

△ 立面 Elevation

△ 立面 Elevation

△ 立面 Elevation

△ 剖面 Section

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| 项目信息 Project Information

项目名称：上海国华·合悦家国际康养中心

项目位置：上海市，普陀区

项目规模：4.3万平方米

建成投用：2024年10月

功能业态：自理公寓、护理公寓、养老配套、公共配套

业       主：国华人寿，宸嘉发展

建筑设计：GN栖城设计

主创设计师：管轶群，吴庆喆

设计团队：戴艾迪，金晓艳，郭力将，孙悦，关清宇，梅宁

室内设计：志贺康养

施工图设计：上海建筑设计研究院有限公司

幕墙设计：中南幕墙

Project Name: Shanghai Guohua Heyuejia International Senior Living Centre

Location: Putuo District, Shanghai, China

Gross Floor Area: 43,000 sq m

Completion / Opening: October 2024

Programme: Independent-living apartments, nursing apartments, senior living amenities, and public amenities

Client: Guohua Life Insurance; Chenjia Development

Architectural Design: GN Architects

Lead Architects: Guan Yiqun, Wu Qingzhe

Design Team: Dai Aidi, Jin Xiaoyan, Guo Lijiang; Sun Yue, Guan Qingyu, Mei Ning

Interior Design: Shanghai Shiga Architectural Design Studio

Construction Documentation: Shanghai Institute of Architectural Design & Research Co., Ltd.

Curtain Wall Design: Zhongnan Curtain Wall

设计腕儿官方微信

010-88600030