Believe it or not, the photograph above is of a retirement village located in the very centre of Adelaide City, and it was built by Uniting Communities, an offshoot of the Uniting Church. They call it U City.
The photograph below is from the mid-level reception of the Long Tan retirement village, a new high-rise apartment development in the centre of Newcastle City, created by RSL LifeCare.
What this tells us is that the church and charity operators of retirement villages are generating the fresh thinking in new living for today’s retirees.
This doesn’t mean that they have forgotten their ‘mission’ of support for all Australians.
Uniting Communities’ U City not only offers six floors and 41 high-rise apartments with retirement living, but also 21 specialist disability accommodation apartments, an 18-apartment bespoke short-stay ‘hotel’ facility equipped for people living with a disability and Adelaide’s first 24/7 Changing Places, a best-practice bathroom for those living with a disability requiring changing facilities in the inner city.
This innovation has resulted in U City being awarded the Australian Institute of Architects’ 2020 South Australian Architecture Award for Public Architecture, plus the City of Adelaide prize.
Also interesting is the fact that U City is Uniting Communities’ first retirement village, demonstrating that church and charities are indeed the innovators in retirement living.
