Reimagining where we live: Empathetic aged care design

Innovative architectural design may not be what you traditionally think of when considering residential aged care spaces. However, with the Department of Health and Aged Care's Reimagining Where We Live: Aged Care Design Ideas competition the federal government has challenged preconceptions of what residential aged care should be and validated the potential of imaginative design.

The competition was an open invitation to architects and designers to test the draft National Aged Care Design Principles and Guidelines, which were created in response to recommendations made by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

The guidelines encouraged innovative design that also created a "welcoming, safe, accessible and dementia-friendly" home.

Monash University's Urban Lab, in collaboration with NMBW Architecture Studio, BoardGrove Architects, BLOXAS and Glas Landscape Architects, took out first prize in the competition's regional category.

Monash Urban Lab, a design research unit within the Monash Department of Architecture, creates solutions for real world issues, such as the densification of cities or regeneration of landscapes. The Lab also tackles larger matters like the energy transition from fossil fuel to renewables, Australia's ageing population and issues that affect the physical fabric of cities and society.

Lab director Nigel Bertram said the team wanted to design flexible housing and urban spaces where older people could receive the support they need but also participate in society freely with Manu Place.

"What we would try to do is to think of this community in a resident aged care situation as not being separate from the general community, but being fully part of it," he said.

"Rather than thinking about it as a specialised medical situation, we wanted to think about how to provide that and make it feel mainstream and normal and joyful and spontaneous and all those things that we all want from everyday life."

Along with a strong focus on community and social engagement Urban Lab identified the importance of a connection to the outdoors in fostering a sense of 'home'.

"There is a series of public and private landscapes on a sort of gradient so that each room has a more public and a more private side," Professor Bertram said.

"We talked about courtyards and cloisters being these landscape devices that allowed people to get outside with different levels of privacy and security depending on how they were feeling.

"[Older] people spend a lot of time in bathrooms being looked after, so the bathrooms are not just a purely functional space. They also need to be a really nice place with good natural light, so the landscape was really important for that."

The Department of Health and Aged Care saw the competition as an opportunity to reimagine the aged care system to better meet the needs of Australia's ageing population, saying "good design can support older people to live with dignity, respect and enjoyment and improve working environments for aged care workers."

At present, 16 per cent of Australians are aged 65 years and older and that percentage is expected to grow to around 22 per cent by 2066.

At the announcement of the competition winners Minister for Aged Care Anika Wells' message to designers and architects was one centred on fostering safe and connected lives for older Australians.

“Good design can vastly improve the quality of life for older people living in aged care, and the working environments of the people who care for them," Ms Wells said.

“Through this design challenge, we've seen innovative ideas and accommodation solutions that will shape the future of aged care accommodation and support older people to live meaningful lives in safe, high quality residential care when it is needed.

"The design entries show what is possible when we think about aged care from a new perspective. I encourage providers to engage with and adopt the National Aged Care Design Principles and Guidelines, as recommended by the Aged Care Taskforce."

Scales of Care by LM2A with Super Natural (above) took out the urban metro category with their multi-story design.

Similar to Manu Place, we see a seamless connection to community and nature with Scales of Care, creating a "meaningful public interface" with a front yard that has become a shared community space, including a children's playground and vegetable garden.

The jury said the design was "an exceptional proposition successfully designed as a dynamic connection between the individual and the community to create a productive relationship … between the practice of care, and the environment in which it takes place … a positive feedback loop … fostered between the resident and the world around them”.

It is this blend of inside and outside, social and private, care and independence, young and old that the two winners effectively incorporated into their designs, reflective of the complex and diverse nature of the people who use residential aged care.

LM2A director Elliott Lind said their submission was about going back to basics with a focus on empathetic design.

"It's about occupying the space yourself and [thinking about] how would we want to live in this space and what can make it as domestic as possible but still operate in a way that's efficient," he said.

Mr Lind said the LM2A team also took the time to consider the experience of aged care staff and the ways they could improve the experience for every person within a facility.

"If staff aren't enjoying their work then they are not going to be providing great care," he said.

"If it's because the environment isn't conducive to good work ... or they don't have the ability to seek respite themselves during their work day ... then their wellbeing needs to be prioritised within the workplace as well."

"So it's a marrying of all those factors, and thinking about designing in a really empathetic and almost less technocratic way, to achieve a good domestic quality."

For more information and to check out more award winning entries visit: Reimagining where we live