Output details

Alzheimer's Respite Centre

RESEARCH CONTENT AND PROCESS

--Description--

The day care and respite centre was commissioned by the Alzheimer Society of Ireland to provide flexible short-term care for people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and offer a means of support for affected families. In the context of our ageing population, the commission gave the practice an opportunity to engage with the challenges of designing appropriate spaces for those with dementia.

--Questions--

--To conduct research into current thinking about environmental care for dementia.

--To investigate how the mind acquires the capacity to experience space and how it loses this capacity as part of the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease.

--To explore the limits of intersubjectivity in the client/architect relationship when dealing with people with different stages of dementia.

--Methods--

--Visiting respite and residential care homes across the UK.

--Consulting with care home staff and care home residents.

--Collecting information on contemporary practice on dementia.

--Furthering interdisciplinary discussion and knowledge sharing through informal discussion, seminars and interviews within UCL.

--A range of design-led research methods through drawing and making.

--Dissemination--

Presented in lectures for Age UK, the Design Council and UCL. Reviewed in the architectural press, including RIBA Journal and Architects’ Journal. It has also been part of an ongoing conversation on spatial thinking and dementia with the UCL Department of Neuroscience. This research has led to further work for Touchstone health care provider, to develop a ‘pattern book’ for the design of 60 primary care centres across Ireland, and a collaboration with Maccreanor Lavington for the property developer Argent, to design extra care facilities for the R5 Building within the King’s Cross Central development.

SIGNIFICANCE

Won a RIBA European Award (2009), the Royal Institute of the Irish Architects Award for the Best Health and Leisure Project (2010) and the Architectural Association of Ireland Special Award (2010).