Adjusting an Older Residential Care Facility to Contemporary Dementia Care Visions

Abstract

Older residential care facilities are increasingly confronted with an incongruity between contemporary visions on dementia care and outdated infrastructure. In this context a case study analyses how the architecture of such a facility hampers or supports the implementation of its dementia care vision. Interviews, participant observation and document analysis offer nuanced insights into the interplay between care vision and architecture. The latter’s limitations include its spatial organisation, lack of high-quality communal areas, authoritarian character and hospital-like atmosphere, while potential lies in using adaptable lighting, homelike materials and furniture, and small spatial interventions. These interventions can be framed within a major renovation in the long term, which would allow to realize far-reaching improvements in the ward. Since many older facilities display similar features, the case study’s approach and outcome can help them in adjusting their outdated infrastructure to increase the autonomy of people with dementia and support their individuality and emancipation.