Long may we live! Long may we live!

In the 1950s architect H. van Putten designed a new infirmary for the Sint Jacob retirement home in Amsterdam. In those years Sint Jacob provided accommodation for pensioners with physical and psychological limitations. The building was constructed at the end of the nineteenth century according to the efficient and hygienic corridor system. The brief drawn up in the 1950s for the new department included an important innovation: 'An easily accessible, cosy sitting room.' In that period, it became increasingly common to enliven the strict functional division of the corridor system with collective sitting rooms, which encourage encounters between residents.