We have a special passion and experience in designing for people with dementia.
From the designing research ‘room for forgetfulness’ we deepened ourselves in the design of the living/care environment for the elderly with dementia. Within this research medical/scientific knowledge about the brain and the disease dementia are linked to what you can do with this in a building.
From 2011 we deepened ourselves in designing for people with dementia. Quickly it appeared that there was little knowledge available to know what you could consider when designing for this target group. There was a lot of medical/scientific knowledge about the brain and the disease dementia, but little data that explained what you could do with this within a building.
This while this target group depends on its direct environment to a large extent. And more strongly, it is also influenced by this. In practice we heard many examples of a ‘misfit’ between environment and user. This caused undesired behaviour, agitation with the residents, disoriented behaviour and even a higher pressure on the care and higher use of medication.
This was the reason for us to conduct a research ourselves. In 2011 we wrote a research proposal to make a link in this.
“With the research ‘room for forgetfulness’ a link is made between medical/scientific knowledge about the disease dementia and what you can do with this in the building, in particular in the interior”
Objective designing researchUnder the name ‘room for forgetfulness’ Anja Dirks, together with Marielle Wetzels, conducted a two-year research, into the residential care environment for people with dementia. In the research as link is made between medical/scientific knowledge and the built environment. With a focus on the interior. The research is financed by the Stimuleringsfonds for the creative industry and has received cooperation from about 60 parties and companies. Based on a literature study, location visits, designing research and expert LABS design recommendations (tool) were developed based on the themes light, exercise and observation.
