RIBA+VitrA Talk: Nurturing spaces: Designing for dementia
This talk is part of the Well Being: Well Built series of talks for the RIBA + VitrA talks series.
What does a safe, sensitive space look like to those with dementia? How can architects design inclusive environments that nurture and care for each individual with their changing needs?
Join us for this thought-provoking and insightful event, that will bring together leading names within the field, who have researched and worked on built spaces that are designed specifically for those living with dementia.
Architects can play a pivotal role in supporting and enhancing the lives of those living with dementia. By creating environments that facilitate a supportive and caring community, architects and designers can provide stability and connection to those whose sense of self is progressively disintegrating.
Níall McLaughlin and Yeoryia Manolopoulou will present their Losing Myself project, a time-based drawing they collaborated on for the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale, which represented the plan of a building as it may be experienced by different people with dementia. Rather than a typical architectural plan, capturing a horizontal slice through a whole building at once, Losing Myself rejects this way of simultaneously comprehending a building as a whole, but rather, presenting the fragmenting, of both space and time, so often the experience of those living with dementia.
Frank van Dillen, founder of DVA Dementia Village Associates, will present on the very first Dementia Village in The Hogeweyk in The Netherlands; a neighbourhood designed for those living with dementia. The approach has humanised the care of those diagnosed with dementia, revolutionising the traditional structure of a nursing home, and creating a more supportive and independent environment for its residents.
Following the presentations, our speakers will be joined in conversation by Clare Cameron, architect and director within the later living team at PRP. She has an in-depth knowledge of nursing care, dementia care, assisted living, and extra care sheltered housing, having designed, and led an extensive portfolio of award-winning projects in the field of older people's housing and care.