Iris Van Steenwinkel

Home in later life: A framework for the architecture of home environments

ABSTRACT With the growing number of people moving into old age, architects face the challenge of designing appropriate residential environments for current and future generations of older people. Too often they live in houses that are not adapted to their needs and desires, with few spatial and social qualities of a real home. Among architects and professional care givers awareness is growing of the importance of “feeling at home” in residential care environments, rather than just having basic needs like food, shelter, and medical care met. This article builds on this tendency. Based on literature from different disciplines, we first identify a set of concepts that form a framework to understand: (1) what is important in order to create a feeling of homeliness, particularly for older people, and (2) how the physical house and its environment can contribute to that. We then articulate how these concepts can be reflected in the architecture of the home by drawing on empirical material from case studies in the homes of older people living in different contexts. The feeling of homeliness is based on a dynamic balance between autonomy and security. This balance is an ongoing process, called appropriation; it is the process by which a person makes a house into a home. For five spatial aspects we describe and document how they may contribute to enhancing the autonomy/security balance.

Mary’s Little Worlds Changing Person–Space Relationships When Living With Dementia

With the case study presented in this article we explore how people with dementia experience and use their environment to expand our understanding of how architectural environments can improve their well-being. We focus on how relationships between people and spaces change for people with dementia. Using a qualitative analysis of three in-depth interviews with a woman living with dementia, we obtained an insider’s perspective and a rich account of the changes in her life, including her lived experiences and interventions in her home environment. We contend that looking at people with dementia in relation to and interaction with their environment, combined with an explorative research approach, might reveal multiple and innovative possibilities in designing for people with dementia. To that end, and to build on existing architectural expertise, we suggest focusing on architectural ordering principles across different cases.

Offering architects insights into experiences of living with dementia: A case study on orientation in space, time, and identity

Due to memory loss, people with dementia are increasingly disorientated in space, time, and identity, which causes profound experiences of insecurity, anxiety, and homesickness. In the case study presented in this article, we explored how architecture can support people in coping with this challenge. We took a novel approach to offer architects insights into experiences of living with dementia. Starting from a critical realist and constructionist approach, we combined ethnographic techniques with an architectural analysis. This case study offers insights into the experiences and activities of a woman living with dementia within the architectural context of her home. We describe how the physical and social environment provided her guidance through sequences of day-to-day activities. This study highlights how architecture can support people with dementia in orientating by accommodating places for (1) everyday activities and (2) privacy and togetherness.

How Enclosure and Spatial Organization Affect Residents’ Use and Experience of a Dementia Special Care Unit: A Case Study

Aim: We aim to gain insight into how a dementia special care unit is used and experienced by its residents and what design aspects are important therein. Background: In Flanders, housing for people with dementia evolves toward small-scale, homelike environments. As population aging challenges the affordability of this evolution, architects and other designers are asked to design dementia special care units that offer the advantages of small scaleness within the context of large-scale residential care facilities. How these units are used and experienced is not systematically evaluated. Method: A case study was conducted in a recently built residential care facility where a dementia special care unit was foreseen on the ground floor, yet after a few months was moved to the top floor. The case study combined architectural analysis, participant observation, and qualitative interviews with residents and care staff. Results: Comparing the original situation on the ground floor with the new situation on the top floor highlights how enclosure (physical and visual access to outside and the rest of the facility) and spatial organization affect how residents use and experience a dementia special care unit. Conclusions: Depending on the type and stage of dementia, residents may have different needs for space to move, sensory stimuli, and social contact. In order to meet these different needs, confining residents to a dementia special care unit to the top floor should be avoided unless it is carefully designed, providing sufficient freedom of movement and connection with the outside world.