Local architectural practice Latitude 12½, including Darwin born Hully Liveris and John Berryman, have adapted tropical design and shunned the bland pastel colour schemes common in many aged care facilities to create an optimistic 50 bed facility that makes residents feel at home.

The A$4.5 million Tiwi Gardens Aged Care Facility has received the National Lifestyle Housing for Seniors Award from the Master Builders Association and is now in contention for several architectural awards.

Each bedroom within the hostel style facility has external access to spacious verandahs overlooking individual lush, tropical garden courtyards.

Exuberant use of COLORBOND® steel colours is a hallmark of the facility, where almost every colour in the range is featured.

"By establishing a kind of mini village feel to the facility, each resident has a wide range of potential areas where they can either gather communally, or just be on their own in a courtyard under a frangipani tree," Hully Liveris said.

"Our aim was to make Tiwi Gardens an inspiring and poetic framework which allows people to experience scent, colour, outlook and breezes, to be able to bring their own furnishings, create their own world and still be part of a greater family.

"Residents can stroll along the internal streets and gather for a coffee in the communal kitchen areas or in their own room or on their verandah."

The lightweight steel architectural style and the choice of bright colours complements the tropical Darwin surroundings. All the principal wall framing elements are steel, with corrugated steel cladding on walls and roof, all made from COLORBOND® steel.

"We deliberately sought to fire the imaginations of residents and to lift their spirits through the architecture and landscape design which is the heart and soul of what we have done there," said Hully Liveris.

"Steel was absolutely crucial in terms of producing lightweight buildings that suit the hot and humid tropical climate, is generally maintenance free and provided cost efficiencies required by the client.

"We found the blue/grey carpet and beige and pink of other aged care facilities extremely depressing, and don't see why aged people who enjoyed all sorts of colours when they were younger aren't entitled to them in their latter years," he said.