Dementia design This is not a design statement, it is a


deliberate designed-in aid that guides residents where to sit. Whether light piping on darker upholstery, or dark piping on lighter upholstery, the contrast and the LRV of the upholstery against the piping is key. The piping highlights the arms of the


seat of the chair. This effectively provides an outline. It is much easier for someone with dementia to identify the object as a chair, but more importantly the outline piping helps the user know where to sit. You can start to understand why this


creates less opportunity for a resident to misjudge where they are sitting. Without the piping, a resident might not know where to sit, or misjudge their reach to the chair arm, which could result in stumbling and falling.


LRV and flooring The same principle applies to floor coverings. How often do you hear of older people shuffling when they walk? There can be many reasons for this, but


in my experience if a person is shuffling or avoiding walking on certain floor areas, it is nearly always down to not being able to see or identify what they are walking on. Good use of LRV can significantly assist in limiting shuffling by clearly defining the floor as a safe surface to walk on. Just think how a bright, shiny white tiled


floor looks in a bright sunny interior space. The glare and the sheen on the tiles are accentuated by the daylight flooding in. We have the ability and capacity to understand why it looks like it does so it does not affect our use of the space or how we walk on the tiles. However, if we had dementia or were


experiencing a loss of perception, this bright glaring space could be misconstrued as a wet, slippy area. There is no doubt someone with dementia would avoid the space or if feeling brave would attempt to cross the space, but with significant short paced shuffles. Above, I have illustrated a bad and good


example of flooring. The first picture is flooring we replaced. We replaced this because it was a feature floor within a dementia care environment. Unfortunately, this flooring was hindering how residents transitioned across the space from one room to another. You can see the flooring features dark


borders. It is a design statement we see in many places such as hotels, hospitality


venues, even in domestic home design. The problem with this feature in a dementia specific care home is the dark border. To someone with dementia or those who are visually impaired, it presents as a contrast and could be seen as a step or a rug, for others maybe even a hole. As the University of Stirling paper


states, the ‘most critical area of colour choice is where it impacts a person’s physical safety’. Therefore, ‘preventing falls by specifying a suitable tone of floor covering and matching thresholds’. Given this knowledge, you can


appreciate how someone with a severe loss of perception may approach this area. They may avoid it all together or shuffle up to the dark border and then attempt to make a step up, believing it is a step. This not only leads to confusion but also could lead to an individual losing their footing and falling due to the step not being there. The picture below illustrates how we


have used a patterned floor but avoided the associated pitfalls by applying our understanding of LRV. It is patterned but the tone is so slight someone with a loss of perception is unlikely to identify its existence. You can also see it is not a highly reflective surface.


March 2021 • www.thecarehomeenvironment.com The benefits of this for someone with


dementia or a visual impairment are they are highly unlikely to find this floor a challenge to walk across, and the design beauty of the pattern can be seen and appreciated very clearly by those who do not have a loss of perception. It is design for everyone. You can begin to see that empowering


environments for those with dementia or visual impairments do not have to be formulaic. This is an adult environment and as such it should reflect that. Sophisticated, comfortable, beautiful and, yes, functional. It is a home and as such it should


represent the familiarity of what a home means to people. To feel at home is all part of an inclusive interior care environment occupied by varying needs.


LRV and artwork One key aspect is the use of artwork. Artwork can make an environment seem familiar, it can support individuals find their way around the home, and it can aid people with their memory loss. An excerpt from the Australian website Dementia Enabling Environments4


states


as people age, many changes occur which affect vision and colour perception. The thickening and yellowing of the lens


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