The design of dementia-friendly neighbourhoods | By Design - video Dailymotion

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Aunn Ning, a researcher at Social Urban Lab, takes us through urban designs in dementia-friendly neighbourhoods. We delve into the innovative elements that make neighbourhoods navigable and supportive for residents living with dementia. We also examine how thoughtful urban planning creates inclusive, connected communities for both dementia patients and their caregivers.  Watch more: https://www.asiaone.com/video

Transcript

00:00We felt that the community was a very important part in making sure that

00:03we create a very dementia-friendly kind of environment.

00:06So it's not just the physical environment, but also like the software of it.

00:16Hi An Ning, thank you so much for coming down today.

00:21I understand that you're an architecturally trained researcher

00:23and you worked on this very interesting project

00:25with the Singapore University of Technology and Design.

00:28Can you tell me about that?

00:29So the project is called the Dementia-Friendly Neighbourhood Project

00:32and it was done as a study because with the increasing rates of

00:37people projected to get diagnosed with dementia,

00:40we kind of needed to figure out how to make our public estate more dementia-friendly.

00:45Yeah, because I understand that our longevity is now projected to extend to 100 years old

00:51and people who are above 85 have up to a 30% likelihood of getting dementia, right?

00:56It is kind of with this in mind and the fact that we have a very dense

01:00and a very, very tightly packed kind of a housing condition.

01:04How do we actually design our neighbourhood estates

01:07so that it becomes more friendly for people living with dementia

01:11as well as their caregivers so that they can continue to live in place

01:15and live a fulfilling life even after they've been diagnosed

01:18without the need to sort of pluck them out from their existing homes

01:22and move them into a completely separate and foreign environment.

01:25I see.

01:25Which we also do not have the resources for.

01:28We don't have the space.

01:29Yeah, we don't have the space or the resources to sort of just funnel that into like specific

01:34dementia complete care kind of facilities that they do have overseas.

01:38Since this is a project by the Singapore University of Technology and Design,

01:42can you tell me about some of these design elements that you found can actually help

01:46with making a neighbourhood dementia-friendly?

01:48We call it the plus minus multiply divide principle.

01:51For a lot of the older people, right, the way that they navigate their environment is actually true.

01:55Mental map anchors.

01:57So they'll be like, oh, this place beside the playground by the coffee shop from the car park.

02:03So there's a lot of this kind of landmarks, mental landmarks that they have in their neighbourhood.

02:07So what we want to make sure is that when we create spaces for them,

02:11or we intervene in the physical design of spaces,

02:15and then all that space becomes a landmark for you.

02:18So if you're ever lost in your environment,

02:20hopefully that becomes one of the things that jump out at you and you kind of recall it.

02:24Minus would actually be the more of a reductionist approach.

02:28There's a lot of visual input.

02:30There's a lot of things that we're seeing, sounds we're hearing,

02:32especially in our very population-dense area.

02:35So when we do interventions, we also want to recommend that you try to keep things simple,

02:40and then you do not try to over-stimulate and create

02:44too many, many, many things for them to be distracted by.

02:47What about multiply?

02:48We want to make sure that the effect of whatever we do, right,

02:51is multiplied onto the caregiver.

02:53When we design that kind of play equipment in our final prototype,

02:57we also encourage that the caregivers engage in the games.

03:00It's not like I send you to the daycare,

03:03and then I sit outside and wait for one hour.

03:06And what about divide?

03:08Okay, so divide is this principle whereby

03:11we understand that sometimes things can get a little bit daunting.

03:15Understanding that the huge change in lifestyles is actually very jarring for them,

03:20we realise that whatever we want to introduce to them,

03:24we need to make sure that it can be absorbed into their lives incrementally.

03:28The other things that I would say that design intervention can do

03:32for hardware, for physical spaces,

03:34would also be to create spaces that are integrated with other parts of the society.

03:39So it's not like you need to travel really out of place,

03:41but just within your neighbourhood area,

03:43they find a space that people can go to for inquiries about dementia,

03:47they can go for inquiries about caregiver support.

03:50They might have a localised gym,

03:52they might have a cafe in the same space,

03:53so that different, different people from the neighbourhood

03:56can come together to use that space.

03:58So it doesn't become an isolated,

04:00like a, this place is only for people with dementia,

04:02this is, that space is just for them.

04:04You try to create more opportunities for the community to interact

04:07and to build an understanding of each other.

04:10What is your vision for the future of dementia-friendly neighbourhoods?

04:14I would say that communities require time to be built.

04:19Yes, so dementia-friendly community

04:20is something that needs to happen quite organically over time.

04:25Yes, so if we want to build that,

04:27I think we have to start early.

04:29And we are starting already

04:31because we have seen a lot of this kind of initiatives

04:33popping up all over Singapore.

04:34So what I really hope is that all this will come together

04:37into something that's scalable.

04:39It needs to be a must-have in our estates.

04:42By also starting with ourselves to create that community of supporting each other.

04:46Community is made out of all of us.

04:48Yes.

04:48Well said.

04:50Thank you very much, Ani.

04:51Thank you, no problem.

04:53Okay, Claire, any other questions?

04:55Oh, hi!

04:56Okay, thank you so much!

04:58Thank you!

The design of dementia-friendly neighbourhoods | By Design

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