How Enclosure and Spatial Organization Affect Residents’ Use and Experience of a Dementia Special Care Unit: A Case Study

We aim to gain insight into how a dementia special care unit is used and experienced by its residents and what design aspects are important therein. In Flanders, housing for people with dementia evolves toward small-scale, homelike environments. As population aging challenges the affordability of this evolution, architects and other designers are asked to design dementia special care units that offer the advantages of small scaleness within the context of large-scale residential care facilities. How these units are used and experienced is not systematically evaluated. A case study was conducted in a recently built residential care facility where a dementia special care unit was foreseen on the ground floor, yet after a few months was moved to the top floor. The case study combined architectural analysis, participant observation, and qualitative interviews with residents and care staff. Comparing the original situation on the ground floor with the new situation on the top floor highlights how enclosure (physical and visual access to outside and the rest of the facility) and spatial organization affect how residents use and experience a dementia special care unit. Depending on the type and stage of dementia, residents may have different needs for space to move, sensory stimuli, and social contact. In order to meet these different needs, confining residents to a dementia special care unit to the top floor should be avoided unless it is carefully designed, providing sufficient freedom of movement and connection with the outside world