CARLOS SALDEÑO

PERSONAL ACCOUNT

I am 62, the youngest of 5 brothers and sisters. My dad passed away after several years of suffering with Alzheimer’s desease and my mother-in-law became ill with Parkinson’s desease at a relatively early age. I witnessed my mother’s lonesomeness living in a large house and while my grandparents, uncles, aunts and the rest of my nearest family became older I realised how unattended a senior citizen is nowadays.

As soon as we are able to walk we begin to spend most of our time with others in the same age group who share the same motivations and needs. As we grow we go through different stages that bring/induce changes in our style of living. There comes a point in time when several factors coincide: our kids grow and leave home to follow their own paths in life, we retire or decide to continue working but at a slower pace, we feel the need for more time for ourselves and visits to different doctors become a routine. I am convinced that this is the moment when we become senior citizens and must change our life style once more, regardless of how reluctant we may be. Time to move to a habitat designed and furnished to meet our new needs, where we can avoid lonesomeness, nostalgia, boredom and the fear of becoming sick from seeing the rooms of our home go empty, from having an ever scarcer social life, and perceive how our health declines day by day. Time for a radical change in our setting.

Such experiences encouraged me to study the circumstances of the senior citizen and find architectural solutions to the needs of this social group. I came up with a number of options which I shared with Manuel looking for some advise on how to convert my ideas into actual possibilities. Luckily, I found not only an adviser but better yet a partner sensitive to the issue with the same concerns, who realized the ideas on the drawing table represented ways to help senior citizens live a better wholesome life. His experience and know-how in carrying on ambitious projects with deep social content found excellent application grounds.

Thus, ANHELOSLAND came to be the leader of a group of companies dedicated to projects for fulfilling the needs of the senior citizen. Our first undertaking is VILLA ANHELOS, a four-building complex designed to host a community of senior citizens pampered with the social, gaming and learning activities that it will offer. A place to enjoy life in a dignified and healthy manner under the close monitoring of preventive and integral medicine.