Design
Learning lessons fromEurope and challenging the norms
Urban Edge Architecture’s Sonia Parol has recently returned from a study trip to Europe where she visited care homes and senior living schemes in Copenhagen and the Netherlands that have been designed to promote social connection, happiness and wellbeing
Care homes in Europe differ greatly from those commonly found in the UK. Is it therefore time we started to challenge the accepted rules, regulations and concepts that have dominated the UK care home market for several decades? The senior living and care home sector in the UK is at a pivotal point; the changing needs and expectations of its core demographic requires that we must seek to change the concepts that we have been applying to senior living schemes for years.
People who are reaching retirement age now have completely different lifestyle expectations to those that went before. For some time the retirement or care sector in the UK has been focused on the high end of the market – luxurious care and retirement villages, often located in rural locations. These developments may suit the silent generation, who perhaps haven’t travelled far and have worked and saved to feel safe and secure.
However, the ‘baby boomers’ who are now entering retirement were brought up in the revolutionary era of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and have often travelled widely. Therefore, they are increasingly demanding the opportunity to engage in the social and economic life of the wider community. They want to live in urban and suburban areas, maintain and build new friendships and participate in community activities.
OK Huset Lotte in the Frederiksberg district of Copenhagen
To meet this need, innovative senior living and care schemes in towns and cities that actively encourage social connection through the provision of shared and social spaces should be planned. We want to create developments where the young and the elderly can live side by side, both benefiting from the social, cultural and economic opportunities of a multigenerational community. Examples of this approach in the UK are few and far between, but in other parts of Europe there are care homes and senior living schemes that demonstrate the benefits of a physical connection to the wider community.
The option for residents to remain in the area where they lived means that neighbours who are still living independently can easily visit, ensuring a continuous and seamless connection to the local community
January 2019 •
www.thecarehomeenvironment.com
Community engagement In September last year, we embarked on a study tour to Copenhagen where our first port of call was OK Huset Lotte in the Frederiksberg district of the city. This state funded, dementia care home for 60 residents is situated a 15 minute drive from the city centre and, upon arrival, it was immediately striking how different a model it is to those that we see in the UK. Lotte is designed over six floors and is contemporary in style; for example, the furniture is modern and minimalistic and therefore inkeeping with the
Scandinavian vernacular. The reason for this is that most of the residents are from Copenhagen and would have lived in apartments in the city before moving to Lotte and therefore the surroundings and living accommodation would have been recognisable to them. The option for residents to remain in the area where they lived means that neighbours who are still living independently can easily visit, ensuring a continuous and seamless connection to the local community. While much store is set, quite rightly, on maintaining connections with family, it has to be recognised that a connection with
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