This project explores the loss of autonomy and intimacy following a sudden medical incident such as a stroke, particularly for those outside normative family structures who rely on alternative kinships.

Inspired by the film Deux, in which two older women share a decades-long secret relationship. Madelaine loses her ability to speak and move after a stroke. Despite Nina’s desire to care for her partner, their relationship is denied recognition, stripping Madelaine of autonomy and intimacy, two crucial aspects in any care relationship.

Stroke survivors often face long-term impairments requiring support. While recovery progresses, access to therapy facilities remains essential, yet often inaccessible, also in central Zurich. The project aspires to unite essential spaces for recovery and housing within a singular entity.

The façade, keeping the existing structure, creates opacity with its shading system and blurs visibility having a singular entrance for housing and care facility. A central courtyard introduces light and exterior circulation, leading to flexible dual-unit clusters that allow care and intimacy to coexist discreetly.

In contexts of dependency, architecture must offer opacity, flexibility, and agency, so that intimacy, in all its forms, may quietly persist and grow.