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Aged Care
Aged Care Architecture can have a profound impact on how we live our lives, work and respond socially, this is remains true in all stages of life, and is especially important in the Aged Care sector.
At Edmiston Jones our aim is to support our clients fulfil their vision, and to design stimulating but secure environments that, as much as possible, are non-institutional,
We believe in using a human-centred approach to care in our architectural designs. Historically, aged care settings stifle freedom of movement, diminish dignity, limit choice and other aspects of self-determination for people residing there. We promote design for quality of life – to improve residents’ circumstances and well-being. All sound architectural choices have long-lasting and significant positive effects.
Three principles for design in aged care:
Principle 1: Projects are driven by a vision that maintains and enables human dignity, even for people with cognitive and/or physical impairment.
Principle 2: Keep it simple. As cognitive abilities decline, this reduces people’s capacity to deal with complexity. So, we aim to keep our designs simple, with destinations that are visible and clear.
Principle 3: Residential means non-institutional. As much as establishments must be functional to facilitate routines of clinical care, residences are ultimately homes.
Henry Brooks Estate
The village of 100 self-contained units reflects the relaxed lifestyle favoured by the Kanahooka/ Dapto community as many of the residents have come from the local area to remain close to family connections and maintain existing social networks.
The master planned community of precincts of 20 or so units that together combine to make the village, is an innovative approach responding to the desire to belong to a community where there is support and social interaction. A core idea is that ‘community’ does not solely reside in the Community Centre. At the Estate, pocket parks within each precinct give the opportunity for communal activities, street parties, places for grandchildren to play or for residents to sit and simply watch the passing parade. Open spaces at the end of the internal ‘streets’ provide space for residents to make their own mark on their immediate neighbourhood.
Within the community is the Jasmine Grove co-housing precinct, co-designed with IRT and a cohort of older women at risk of homelessness. These compact units share common facilities such as a large kitchen, dining and living area, opening out to a large terrace and vegetable gardens. The women who live here have formed strong bonds, often meeting for meals together, showcasing the success of both the collaborative design process and co-housing model.
