Design for Dementia - Helen Hamlyn Centre - Royal College of Art

DESIGN FOR DEMENTIA
DINING
INTERIOR
The layout of social areas within the home
should mimic a domestic environment so
that residents make the link with memories
of their own homes. There should be no visual
or physical barriers so people can move freely
throughout the space without the need for
constant supervision. Floor plans should
include staff facilities at the centre of the
activity areas so that interaction naturally
occurs as staff go about their daily routine.
Room Adjacencies and Relationships
–
Some homes only provide one room to cater
for all group activities and have to include
seating areas, televisions as well as furniture
for eating. Open plan spaces like these create
a burden on residents to interact with each
other continuously. Studies of areas like
this have shown that they lead to increased
withdrawal, conflict among residents and
staff burnout. 3
In open plan, multi-use areas it is very
difficult to offer effective information about
what activity is taking place at any given time.
Residents can become confused as a result
and noise levels and visual stimuli cannot be
controlled. People also have less choice about
which activities they want to be involved in.
For these reasons it is essential that rooms
have single functions so that residents can
choose the activities they want to be a part
of and so that sensory information can be
tailored to improve recognition of what is
going on.
Having separate dining areas also allows
layouts and decor to be customised to reflect
the specific function of the room. In homes
where decoration is generic, environments
will not communicate their purpose or help
residents understand what they should be
doing within that space. Every room should
communicate to residents using non-verbal
messages that take advantage of all their
remaining senses at the same time. 4
In the sample layout overleaf, room
function has been modelled on the relationships
that exist in a typical domestic home
in the UK. The dining area is located beside
the kitchen, the patio is located outside the
kitchen door and the garden extends out from
the patio. Preserving these relationships and
creating rooms full of the objects that are
typical of such spaces will visually remind
residents what each area is used for offering
the best chance for them to orientate themselves
within the environment. Good orientation
allows people to find places on their
own and reduces their dependency on staff
having to remind them of their destination.
–
3. John Zeisel,
Joan Hyde, Sue Levkoff,
Best practices:
An Environmental /
Behavior (E/B) model
for Alzheimer special
care units, Journal of
Alzheimer’s Disease,
March - April, Volume 9,
Number 2, 1994, p6
–
4. John Zeisel,
Environmental
Neuroscience and
Alzheimer’s Disease,
Alzhiemer’s Care
Quarterly, October –
December, 2005, p6
Multi-use day room with generic decoration
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