Architects require ‘baseline guidance’ in order to drive forward designs for supportive care environments for people with dementia, in a current vacuum of regulation. This was one of the key takeaways from a round table held this week, which was also the second meeting of a new cross-disciplinary Design for Inclusivity Network for sharing good practice on inclusive design.
The meeting of expert designers, academics, manufacturers and care professionals, took place on 17th June at the London studio of event co-sponsor Amtico International. Together with fellow event sponsors Johnstone’s Trade Paints they brought insights from the supply chain on the current state of specification of environments for people with dementia.
The in-depth discussion reinforced some of the findings of the Network’s inaugural meeting at the Royal Institute of British Architects in October 2024, particularly that design needed to be ‘person-centred’ and not driven by organisational requirements. This echoed the words of original attendee Rob Hayles, design consultant at Citizens with Experience:
“If you’ve met one person with dementia, you’ve met one person with dementia.”
The delegates delved into the practical challenges of ‘co-design’ with users, the need to include design for dementia principles as part of mainstream architectural syllabuses, and how elements such as flooring and colour specification could be brought up the agenda. In the view of sponsors Amtico and Johnstone’s Trade Paints, such factors were often decisions left to the end of projects, despite their critical importance to users of care environments.
Attendee from Johnstone’s Trade Paints Donna Taylor commented that Equality Act colour contrast recommendations were being rigidly applied without due flexibility, to the detriment of spaces’ quality for users. Delegates Eef Hogervorst of Loughborough University and Martin Quirke of the Dementia Services Development Centre at the University of Stirling cited examples of innovative methods to involving users in design, such as research on VR-based approaches, and why “person-centred” design may be more realistic than fully “personalised” spaces.
Event chair James Parker, editor of Architects’ Datafile, commented:
“This was a crucial second meeting of this ongoing specialist information sharing network on the crucial challenge of designing spaces which were appropriate and supportive for people with dementia, but also cost-effective given the demographic and economic challenges the UK faces.
“It was a pleasure to chair an open and collaborative discussion on this key design issue which did not shy away from the problems, and we are grateful for Amtico for hosting us at their London Flooring Studio. From a lack of design guidance to a concerning gap in architects’ knowledge, the delegates showed why designing for dementia should not be seen as a siloed part of healthcare design, but something which cuts across all sectors and should be disseminated to architects both in training and in practice.”
There was consensus that a third meeting of the Design for Inclusivity Network would ideally not only feature central NHS management, Government representatives and academics formulating universities’ architectural syllabuses, but also perspectives from people with dementia. As one delegate, Fiona Walsh of DDS architects commented:
“Every designer should be taking this on board.”
The full list of delegates for the Building Insights LIVE Design for Inclusivity Network 2 round table were:
- Eef Hogervorst – Professor of Psychology, Loughborough University
- Dr Jane Mullins – Dementia Nurse Consultant & Trainer, DUETcare Ltd
- Dr Martin Quirke – University of Stirling (DSDC)
- Gemma Bottomley – Associate, Watson Batty Architects
- Emily Jeffers – Inclusion and Diversity Specialist, RIBA
- Clare Cameron – Director of Architecture, PRP Architects
- Fiona Walsh – Principal, DDS Architects
- Hayley Morris – NHS Estates and Facilities Division
- Dan Bowman – London Commercial Team Leader, Amtico
- Karen Quarterman-Crisford – Design Manager, Amtico
- Donna Taylor – Colour Design Manager, Johnstone’s Trade Paints