FUNCTIONAL INTERIORS FOR SPECIAL NEEDS 4(2+2)

Lesson 31 : Design Criteria for Nursing Homes

Reception

The first impression continues when you walk into a home. Many times the first thing encountered is a nursing station. For security and other reasons it is important to create a reception area.

• Create a reception area even if limited in size.
• Staff it with a volunteer if staff is not assigned.
• Construct a visitor’s restroom off the lobby/reception area.
• Set up a coffee/tea bar important for both hospitality and for creating inviting “smells” as you enter the home. The smell of baking bread can be an alternative achieved by buying an inexpensive bread maker.
• Have soothing and inviting music playing.
• Have a log-in book and install non-conspicuous video cameras to monitor the space. After all this area needs to be welcoming but also serve a security purpose.

Inherent in any institutional stay is the impact of environment on recovery, and the long-term stays typical of nursing home residents greatly increase this impact. The architect and interior designer must have a thorough understanding of the nursing home's mission and its patient profile. It is especially important that the design address aging and its accompanying physical and mental disabilities, including loss of visual acuity. To achieve the appropriate nursing home environment every effort should be made to:

• Give spaces a homelike, rather than institutional, size and scale with natural light and views of the outdoors
• Create a warm reassuring environment by using a variety of familiar, non-reflective finishes and cheerful, varied colors and textures, keeping in mind that some colors are inappropriate and can disorient or agitate impaired residents
• Provide each resident a variety of spatial experiences, including access to a garden and the outdoors in general
• Promote traditional residential qualities of privacy, choice, control, and personalization of one's immediate surroundings
• Alleviate possible disorientation of residents by providing differences between "residential neighborhoods" of the nursing home, and by use of clocks, calendars, and other "reminders"
• Encourage resident autonomy by making their spaces easy to find, identify, and use
• Provide higher lighting levels than typical for residential occupancies