Design


home on the site, but it wasn’t a great place for people to continue their lives because there were too many people living together, it was too institutional and there was more focus on care than wellbeing.


Eloy believes that people want to continue their lives in a recognisable environment and follow a normal daily routine. So they decided to challenge the norm by introducing some changes, such as creating smaller groups of people living together and matching those people who lived together according to their lifestyle, ideas, history, hobbies and values. After 10 years they noticed how beneficial this was and decided to demolish the existing building and create something new.


The result is the Hogeweyk village we see today – 23 homes (increasing to 27 by the end of 2018) - with small groups of six or seven like minded people living together, the matched lifestyles and preferences ensuring a regular rhythm to residents’ lives, creating less stress, irritation and aggression. Residents, even those with severe dementia, can leave their homes and walk into the village to access amenities such as shops, restaurants and pubs.


While Hogeweyk provides a high level of nursing care, the priority is on creating wellbeing and as normal a day to day lifestyle as possible. In each house they cook their own meals, with residents buying ingredients and other household essentials from the village shop. While the shop is part of the scheme, it can be accessed by members of the local community and is also used by people from outside.


Much like the Bomi-Parken


development we visited in Copenhagen, spaces within Hogeweyk are also rented out, not only to provide additional revenue streams, but also to provide more activity and opportunities for residents to interact with a variety of different people. Indeed, the scheme has been designed to make it easy for visitors and much more pleasant than a standard nursing home.


Eloy explained that it is very important to bring people of different ages into the village – whether they are volunteers or visitors to the shop and restaurant – to create a living, vibrant society where there are lots of activities going on. This is important because it encourages us to question our understanding of the word ‘activity’.


In the UK, we tend to have activity managers in care homes who run classes, whereas – much like the residents of Bomi-Parken watching children play on


18


a nearby zip wire – the Hogeweyk model focuses on natural and organic activity. Having a ‘normal’ lifestyle – whether walking around the village, going shopping, sitting in the café or cooking your own meals – naturally generates real activities.


Challenging the norms Of course, you may be reading this and thinking, “Well, this is the Netherlands, they’re traditionally relaxed and probably don’t have the same volume of regulations as there are in the UK.” However, there are lots of rules and regulations in the Netherlands that the care sector must adhere to, although they often follow innovation rather than stifle it. It concerns me that in the UK we no longer challenge the rules and considered norms. We have focused on creating safe and attractive environments, but still within the same standard concept of a nursing home. In other words, we are just wrapping the same concept in nicer material.


We often still see a cluster of bedrooms with one lounge, a quiet lounge and a dining room. We might add a shop or a hairdressers, but they are only available to the residents and only accessible via an internal lift; residents don’t have to put a coat on, they don’t have to walk far and they don’t see anyone other than carers or fellow residents. We are still worried about their interaction with other people, we want to keep them safe and in a completely risk free environment. When you stop to consider it, this is about as far from a ‘normal’ environment as possible. I think we have to do better.


I believe profoundly in the benefits that can come from social connection and multigenerational living. Not only are shared and social spaces important for physical and mental health and wellbeing, but they will also be considered a necessity for the next generation of


senior citizens who want to continue to have an active part in society. Within the senior living sector, care and dementia care present the biggest challenges for connected living, yet examples in Copenhagen and the Netherlands prove just what can be achieved if we begin to challenge the expected norms.


TCHE


Sonia Parol


Sonia Parol is senior associate director at Urban Edge Architecture. As its head of care and specialist residential, Sonia has overseen the company’s continued growth into the care sector and has led the design and delivery of several major senior living projects, including Bishopstoke Park, an innovative retirement village for Inspired Villages Group. She has a breadth of experience from working on both sides of the globe, including multi-residential, specialist housing and mixed use projects in the urban living sector. From 2009-2011 Sonia was the practice manager at an award winning practice in Sydney where she worked on high end residential and aged care projects.


www.thecarehomeenvironment.com • January 2019


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