Architecture for the Homesick 101: We need to talk about your grandparents.

“Considering how we as designers can help make the city become more age-friendly, instead of being all about consumer shopping malls and coffee shops...” - E. Zhang

I’ve had a kaleidoscopic bag of emotions with nursing homes. – they’d range from brimming with happiness of hearing how Doug has met his wife to having my mum watching my unreadable face as I exit from one. Being in a home for the elderly can be overwhelming.

Especially when it’s witnessing someone who is there against their will.

Two years ago, my grandaunt and uncle were placed in a nursing home in Hong Kong. There was a lot of conflict internally – mainly because we were aware that my granduncle’s dementia was potentially becoming risky to look after by my grandaunt herself, albeit, our grandaunt was rather independent, and she is quite fiercely protective of granduncle as well.

After the two of them moved into the elderly centre – there was a rapid change in their appearance.

I couldn’t recognise my relatives whom I adore so much the moment my dad guided me to their rooms. Granduncle’s face was completely removed of his charm, while my grandaunt was shrivelled up in her bed, voice weak and tired. As stubborn as they were, their pride was completely removed, and independence vanished. My heart broke the moment I was alone with them, and each moment with them was nothing but a steady stream of tears to see how sad they were. While the facilities were acceptable and all, I can’t help but question if there was a way for us to improve on those situations.

The aging population and how we cater for the aging population is something I question and challenge frequently, especially when knowing how to cater to their physicality as well as mentality. From understanding their level comfort of how far they could walk, how many stairs they could climb, and knowing what materials would be the safest for them to use or touch is challenging however, I feel is rarely talked about. For me personally, is how do you create an environment for individuals to feel that they could still have their sense of pride and acknowledgement of independence?

Of course, this could be argued that it comes down to how each person would react to their environmental situation. However, I’d like to counter that it is also the level of empathy and outreach we need to have in order to establish a comfortable and welcoming home to have the elderly.

One of my favourite examples lies in a scenario given to us by an architect (name forgotten). He explained one of his favourite ways of explaining a good architectural design were bus stops in front of elderly/nursing homes where they’ve had several incidents of elderly escaping from their own homes. These bus stops were a distraction, if not red herring, for the workers to pretend that they reside nearby the bus stop, and would kindly invite the elderly (should have a brief moment of forgetting where they are going) back into the nursing home. The anecdote had several layers: we needed to approach elderly in a manner of relatability, compassion and empathy, developing a friendship and layer of understanding of their desires.

To foster a good relationship with those who need to live in nursing home is indeed hard at times because of the stigma and connotation many would place on the community. Common words like ‘abandon’ otherwise ‘neglect’ are prone to appear in nursing homes. I don’t blame them – because it does take immense emotional strength to care and look after those we love when their personalities are beyond recognisable.

There was a question many of my medical friends received during their oral exam “Do you think the elderly is beneficial or a burden to society?” Of course, there’s no right or wrong answer although, it is a question I believe should be asked to every industry. Because we are in an era where cultural and technological evolution are happening at a rapid pace – we sometimes forget that while we are catering for the young, and the future generation, we often forget to take the elderly or our current selves into consideration. What happens if we suddenly develop arthritis? What happens if we suddenly wake up with a body of a physically weak eighty year old? To rarely think about these situations isn’t uncommon because there is a common habit for us to design for longevity.

However, when we design for ‘longevity’ it generally limits to the timelessness and the shifting of the programming – we may consider the users however, the programming and the main user-groups don’t evolve at the same pace. Let alone, there’s another layer of psychology we need to consider – from being sociable to feeling alone. There’s a very complex matter that should be delved into should we take on these spaces.  

Emmanuelle Moureaux’s interior design for Shinjuen NursingHome is an example of crafting the silver lining between the nursing home and a feeling of home for the elderly. Too often, although the lack of budget permits the extent of creativity, there needs to be some sense of excitement or uniqueness of the home that not only benefits the residents, but should benefit those who work or visit the nursing home. After all how one’s reception to the atmosphere ultimately affects one’s narrative and interaction with their environment – and that’s something that we need to focus greatly as well.

Another thought, what if it is not the architecture, but our attitudes towards the aging population needs a shift. As a society, the aging population shouldn’t be considered to just retirement, however as my friend pointed out after reading Bloomberg Businessweek’s article about elderly women purposely breaking the law for the “community and stability of jail”, rather than “being all about consumer shopping malls and coffee shops” we as designers need to consider the links and design possibilities for the elderly. We as designers also need to consider the design beyond the interior, for we need to grapple with external amenities, machineries that can cater and benefit the elderly. Indeed, while it can be argued that, because it is rather difficult to communicate with the population – it doesn’t mean that we could still try and bring it as a design focus, considering that majority of the cites are dominated by the aging population.

There are two questions that I am left with for now:

Is the elderly society are a positive or a burden to the population?

Have there been any good models/ design approaches for elderly/nursing homes published recently in the design sphere?

Response to:
- Wayward alzheimer’s patients foiled by fake bus stop – Harry de Quetteville, The Telegraph, June 03 2008
- Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women – Shiho Fukada, Bloomberg Businessweek, March 16 2018
- Shinjuen Nursing Home, Kawagoe – by Emmanuelle Moureaux, 2014