Approach for Designing Elderly Care Homes

• Main Author: Vihma, Susann
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: DRS Digital Library 2010
• Subjects: Elderly Care Home; Design; Organization; Homeliness; Well-Being; karelia*
• Online Access: https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conference-papers/drs2010/researchpapers/123; https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1904&context=drs-conference-papers

Most research has been unable to combine organisation, management and design studies. This seems a major shortcoming when looking at elderly care homes, because well-being in these institutions depends on all three approaches. Hence the aim of our research is to produce new knowledge on the interdependence of the three aspects. Special emphasis is put on planning processes. Numerous new buildings for the elderly will be planned in coming years and, at the same time, renovations of old buildings will be carried out. We will especially look at the design objectives for these undertakings. This paper is about a work in progress by a team consisting of researchers and doctoral students in organisational and management studies at the University of Eastern Finland and design research at the Aalto University School of Art and Design. The four-year project started in 2009 and is funded by the Academy of Finland. Already in the early phase, the multidisciplinary team has produced inspiring new ideas. One of the research methods has been to use photographic documentation of municipal and private elderly care homes. During visits to cares homes in North Karelia, systematic documentation was created. Selected photographs were, then, discussed by six focus groups representing various stakeholders. This research material, experiences and documentation of visits and sessions, was used to describe and analyse conditions and concrete product environments, in order to lead to better understanding, planning and organisation in the future. In this paper, the concept of homeliness is examined from a design point of view and as a part of well-being, based on empirical data and literature.