Focusing on quality living in old age, this book explores innovative architectural designs and building solutions tailored for individuals with physical or cognitive limitations. It highlights integrative housing concepts that blend individual, collective, and assisted living arrangements, showcasing how sophisticated design can enhance the living experience for seniors. The work emphasizes the importance of thoughtful architecture in fostering independence and community among older adults.
Dementia presents immense challenges – both for individuals as well as for society as a whole. More than 35 million people all over the world currently live with dementia, a number that is expected to double by 2050. This also has implications for architecture and urban planning because dementia often affects people’s sense of orientation and their ability to perceive space. How can homes, apartments, public buildings, outdoor spaces, neighbourhoods and cities, as well as environments and infrastructure, be designed to meet the needs of people with dementia as well as those of their caregivers? And can a consideration of the problems of dementia lead to a better understanding of space that can improve architecture and the built environment for us all? This book addresses these and other questions in a series of professional essays that examine the specific requirements for different disciplines. In addition, international case study projects illustrate the breadth of current actual solutions. The book is intended as a guide for all those involved in the design and planning process – architects, interior designers, engineers, town planners, local authorities and clients – and as a reader for the users for people with dementia, their family and friends, and all those in their social environment.
Quality living in old age is one of the important topics of our time. Architects and builders can contribute innovative types of housing, intelligent concepts for barrier-free buildings, and advanced systems of care for people who are fragile or suffering from dementia. Intelligent design solutions can push back the limits on housing and care, on residential architecture and care facilities, on individual, collective, and assisted forms of housing, and even on the various phases of life in favor of a comprehensive trend toward integrated forms of housing. This volume in the series Design Manuals optimizes the concept, content, and presentation of the series to improve its use by the customer. A third of the volume provides detailed expert information from around fifteen contributors, including general questions of energy management and sustainability, open space, and product design. A section of examples provides a building typology, presenting approximately forty international buildings in analyses of up to eight pages that offer exemplary solutions for multigenerational buildings, assisted living, housing for people with dementia and other special target groups, old persons’ homes, nursing homes, and integrated projects.