apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

The architecture of the buildings reads more like a home from the outside, and that extends to the floorplans, too, which are subdivided into smaller groups oriented around spaces that function like a family room and a kitchen.

Meals are served in the kitchen rather than in a cafeteria, and residents can choose to socialize around a hearth -- or have more privacy in their rooms.

Here's a plea to make a good idea great: we'd like to see every Green House actually built green: with the number of boomers who will need care, retirement homes will make up a significant amount of new construction. And judging from how warm our grandparents keep their house, even small gains in energy efficiency could help keep the cost of care down.

images via NCB Capital Impact website; floor plan image copyright The McCarty Company, from a PDF file linked on the NCB site