Narrogin Cottage Homes – a provider of aged care services in WA’s Southern Wheatbelt region – engaged SPH to design and deliver a new dementia care facility to sit alongside their existing aged care accommodation.

They aimed to create a therapeutic environment that would nurture, stimulate and liberate people living with dementia.

Can the physical design of a care environment maximise the wellbeing of people living with dementia?  At SPH we believe that good design has a direct impact on the wellbeing of residents.

Through a collaborative design process, we drew upon scientific knowledge and first-hand experience from health professionals to ensure a best practice facility, centred around the functional needs of both residents and support staff.  

To that end, we incorporated a series of design strategies to assist residents living with dementia, including:

• Design to maximise gardens
• Design to provide views of nature
• Discrete security and safe meaningful movement
• Minimise decision points
• Minimise confusion  
• Helpful stimulation
• Helpful queueing
• Careful consideration of corridors, and
• Ability to engage or retreat to personal space.

The design of this 14-bed facility engages residents in communal activities whilst offering private spaces for retreat and relaxation, thereby enabling them to live with dignity and promote greater independence in a secure environment.

As part of the secure dementia care facility works, SPH completed a reclassification and fire safety upgrade, reclassifying the existing Class 3 Hostel / Care facility to Class 9c Aged Care Facility.

The existing facility upgrade works included a new porte cochère entry, waiting and reception area, and the addition of 3 bed extra beds, two of which were design for bariatric residents with full room and ensuite ceiling hoist functionality.

SPH’s unique understanding of aged care and associated compliance requirements meant we were able to assist Narrogin Cottage Homes with required performance solutions to minimise the reclassification works.

We are also conscious that design of aged care facilities for residents in regional locations requires us to carefully consider local characteristics such as place and context.

We therefore investigated the architectural language of the surrounding area and its cultural significance, to ensure that our design enhances the residents’ sense of connection to their familiar places, which delivers benefits in terms of overall wellbeing and community connection.