#Ninety nine percent invisible windows#

Something that prioritizes the needs of dementia patients above all else.Īt first, the institution made incremental changes. What they envisioned was an approach that optimized environments for people with dementia, instead of imposing a sterile, nonspecific design. But over time, they saw the need for something different. It was five floors high with long corridors locked by keypads. It actually started as a stereotypical nursing home. When the Hogeweyk opened in the 1970s in the Netherlands, it wasn’t yet the model for dementia-friendly design. But in recent years, some exceptions have been gaining attention - living spaces anchored in dementia-friendly design. By and large, these potential hazards aren’t accommodated in the design of dementia care facilities.

#Ninety nine percent invisible windows#

They can interpret their own reflections in windows and mirrors as entirely other people. Studies have shown dementia patients might perceive a flat screen television as a hole in the wall, or a Paisley-patterned rug as a fish pond in the ground.

For example: Part of dementia’s progression involves the loss of visual-spatial skills. Many people with dementia live in spaces that are not designed with their specific needs in mind. And while it’d be great to find a cure, very few resources have been used to study the lived experiences of people with the disease, or to improve the spaces they inhabit. But that money was almost exclusively invested in finding a cure or treatment for Alzheimer’s - a strategy that hasn’t panned out yet. As the terror of Alzheimer’s spread, federal funding for Alzheimer’s research also surged. Even sympathetic news reports presented the disease as it is often described: the funeral that never ends. Journalists, politicians and even advocates and loved ones regularly described people with Alzheimer’s as vegetables, as strangers, as shadows - as better off dead. And residents could go months or years without stepping outside. Staff resorted to physical restraints, antipsychotics and sedatives to deal with patients. Many of these nursing homes echoed the clinical harshness of their predecessors. When public mental hospitals were forced to close, a wave of nursing homes ushered in a new generation of people with dementia with nowhere else to go. Residents lived in crowded, sometimes unsanitary conditions, with limited access to fresh air and loved ones.

But these institutions were designed to contain people, not care for them. But in the 19th century, many were moved to public mental hospitals. For centuries, dementia patients had been sent to poorhouses and jails.