A New Approach to Designing ALFs

One of our recent grads sent me an article about a new design for an ALF, This Assisted Living Facility Is Designed To Look Like Homes On A Golf Course. Another article, published in the local newspaper, the design is for residents with dementia. Svayus takes a different approach to Alzheimer’s explains that this ALF is a place out of time

What they’re about to enter is a world more reminiscent of one that existed in the 1930s and 1940s. The exteriors of the residences are designed to look like homes commonly found during that time period, down to the color of the paint. 

The world of Svayus houses 22 residents, most of whom have Alzheimer’s disease. As the disease progresses, Makesh said, people begin to revert back to their childhood. Svayus serves as something of a time capsule. 

The reasoning behind this is emotional: to provide the residents with a familiar “feel” to their residences. The company has several ALFs designed with the residents in mind. One of them offers this:

Entering into Svayus is like walking outside. In addition to the period-accurate home exteriors, residents are also greeted with a grass-green floor, (artificial) plants, a small waterfall and audio of birds chirping. Overhead is the sky ceiling, designed to help with residents’ physiological clock. During the day, residents will see a sunny sky, even on the grayest Northeast Ohio days. … 

At night, the sky ceiling darkens and the porch lights come on. 

“Every little thing you see, the wall color, the paint, actually has a therapeutic benefit, a therapeutic value” …[according to the CEO].

Different aromas also are pumped into the air, providing a therapeutic benefit. Peppermint and frankincense, for example, help with anxiety.  

As far as the ALF designed as though the residents live on a golf course, “rooms designed to look like houses on a golf course. Not only is this aesthetically pleasing, the point is to help residents feel more at home. Compared to your average retirement or assisted living facility, this place looks so much more inviting and calming. The hallway features a ceiling painted like the sky, porches and even porch lights that turn on at night.”

Very cool idea. I wonder what one designed for the Boomers would look like? (tie-dye curtains, peace symbols, Beatles posters anyone?)