ROUND TABLE REVIEW: DESIGN FOR DEMENTIA NETWORK 2: CREATING SUPPORTIVE SPACES FOR DEMENTIA CARE 49
professionals with a key interest.” As a result, she said: “there are a lot of people out there who have heard urban legends that red is the best colour, then one manufacturer grabs it and says the best thing for people with dementia is red, then you have all the red toilets and grab rails.”
Clare Cameron countered that there was some logic to choosing
red as “the last in line on the spectrum of colour,” but questioned whether that meant red should be the colour of fi xtures such as grab rails. Walsh said: “It looks more like a school environment,” and asserted: “it’s down to contrast; is the colour as relevant as the actual tone? A lot of it is actually logic, basic principles.” She added: “Your average architect isn’t going to go trawling through libraries of information and going to social care or individual units, and a lot of times architects aren’t even aware they need these intersections between tones, there’s no regulation. And operators and commissioners aren’t asking for it; until it’s mandated they won’t be.”
The big goal for improving specifi cation and design for people with dementia, for our delegates, was including design discussions on the customisation and tailoring aspects like colour and fl ooring much earlier in projects. The key question was how could they be raised up the list of priorities? Donna Taylor, Colour Design Manager, at Johnstone’s Trade, again expressed the problem of paint “sitting right at the bottom; by the time it gets to us, the majority of the elements have already been put in place.”
Hayley Morris of NHS Estates and Facilities Division commented that an offi cial NHS Health Building Note of design guidance (HBN 0802) exists “specifi cally on dementia, however it hasn’t been reviewed recently,” and she added a caveat that “there’s a list that need reviewing.” Donna Taylor said there was sadly “very little feedback” from projects in terms of what had worked and what didn’t, when it came to colour and people with dementia.
Silos & how to break them
One of the biggest takeaways from the event was that design for people with cognitive impairment cuts across all sectors, and needs to not be viewed as a separate, ring-fenced area of design or provision solely for dementia and ‘elderly’ care facilities. However, delegates said it is viewed as a discipline and set of parameters reserved for care homes and dementia, rather than the wide range of other neurodiversity issues and settings where it’s appropriate and needed.
Emily Jeffers said that the Inclusion and Diversity Overlay to the RIBA Plan of Work had helped to direct architects towards thinking about holistic approaches to supporting people with dementia, but that currently this was only applied “if they’ve got that specifi c user group in mind.” She added: “We need to let people know that this is a user group that needs to be considered outside of just care homes. As soon as you’re designing for dementia, you’re designing for lots of other neurodivergences as well.” With, as Fiona Walsh confi rmed, 40% of the UK population have cognitive or sensory problems, in effect ‘good design for dementia’ should in fact be viewed as a cross-cutting challenge which amounts to nothing less than ‘designing for spaces for people.’ There is a major battle to be won here, when as architect Gemma Bottomley says, some short-sighted clients such as local authorities, prompted to include dementia-friendly design in extra care developments, say why, ”when they might not have dementia?”
This was a brilliant and searching exchange of ideas and views on this key issue for future designs, and we hope to stage further events on the subject – to support this new Design for Inclusivity Network, in 2026. We would again like to thank co-sponsor Amtico International for hosting the meeting at their premises, and their fellow sponsor Johnstone’s Trade Paints for their invaluable support.
EXTENDING THE DISCUSSION Delegates enjoyed Amtico’s hospitality and the opportunity to talk at length around the potential of an ongoing design network for inclusivity
ADF SEPTEMBER 2025
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
