How Do Older Residents Experience a Recently Built Innovative Housing and Care Facility?

Abstract

Housing for older people in Flanders evolves toward small-scale, homelike environments. As population ageing puts pressure on the affordability of this tendency, architects are challenged to design innovative living schemes that offer the advantages of smale-scaleness in an affordable way. Little is known, however, about how people use and experience these schemes. Therefore we analyse how a recently built innovative housing and care facility is experienced by its residents. Analysis of interviews and guided tours suggests that the contemporary architecture is not criticised, but that its materialisation should offer a more homelike atmosphere. The generic layout is experienced as highly confusing and should offer more differentiation. The study confirms the importance of furnishing a place in making it “your own”, and shows how architects can facilitate this. While the design incorporates qualities of small-scale, homelike living schemes for people with dementia, the facility lacks some of the underlying ideals. It is therefore unclear whether the intended benefits for people with dementia are still present in this specific set-up. Together the findings illustrate the importance of follow-up studies since architects might take such an innovative concept as an example without knowing its actual benefits and deficiencies. They also highlight the added value of qualitative case studies for such unique housing and care projects.