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The Belle Vue centre for Dementia Care

Part 2 Project 2008
Sarah Gilby
 Manchester School of Architecture Manchester | UK
Advances in medical science that prolong our lives also increase our risk of developing diseases that limit our mental capacity. Fear and ignorance of issues such as dementia provoke the stigmas and stereotypes surrounding degenerative mental health. We need to confront our relative ignorance of these diseases and act to diagnose, care and treat them. A project to design a centre for dementia care developed from involvement with the ‘Valuing Older People’ Group in Manchester challenging perspectives; whilst contact with people affected by dementia enabled real life challenges to be addressed.

Specifically designing for the person with dementia, the project attempts to blur the boundaries between institutional realities and sense and non-sense. The proposed site lies amongst the former Belle Vue Zoological gardens, a rich historical tapestry of lakes, gardens and amusements. Public gardens celebrate memories whilst historic wandering paths shape and connect the fragmented site, offering an infinite variety of activities, real and imagined, encouraging interaction and triggering sensory memory. Semi-external structures for therapy and staff training lie hidden amid private gardens, providing intrigue and informing the public. Moving mechanical elements and wooden structures, resembling old fairground attractions, provoke distant memories: mirror halls, light and hallucinations create confusing effects, nostalgia for forgotten funfairs.

Through collective physical experiences, residents live a sense of normality whilst members of staff may experience and interpret the confusion of reality in the eyes and minds of those they care for. Residential care aims to work with the needs of the individual, creating a flagship for dementia treatment in the North West. Care is offered at different stages from individual homes to full communal care, fostering the idea of familiar neighbourhood environments. The main building and housing incorporate current guidelines, reflecting extensive research into best practice. Hidden passages bring elements of childhood fantasy and create stimulating environments for the residents, moving away from the conventional care home. Traditional forms and materials are used, thoughtfully creating a sustainable environment of comfort and care. The scheme sensitively addresses not only today’s needs but also provides inspiration for and accommodates the requirements of tomorrow.



Only in the last year the UK government extended coverage of the Human Rights act to older people in care-homes , tacit recognition of an increasingly important issue for our society and just how far it is from being equitable or “ageless”. With over 600 million people over 60 worldwide and a 50% rise in dementia cases expected by 2020, this issue questions the limits of sense and the very definition of a humanity deserving of rights.
The project challenges institutional approaches to dementia, subverting both the external public/private territories of care, and the internal staff-patient hierarchies of the institution, whilst meticulously meeting the myriad requirements of legislation.
The site arrangement is a careful reconsideration of best practice read against Michel Foucault’s history of madness and institutional care. The domestic environments oscillate between the familiarities and anonymity demanded by the occupants hyper-sensitivity to contrast, reflection and change, simultaneously re-considering these “clinical facts” by potentially placing public, staff and patients in ambiguous relationship - questioning their part in the determination of the “demented”.
The staff and patients are involved in an experiment of stimulation, a coming together and blurring of sense and non-sense in an alternative “Alice- in-wonderland” dimension, entered through mirrors, wardrobes, lofts and basements. This dimension occupies the space between the staff and the demented and between the sensible-sane of the public and the insanity of the institution.
The historical situation of Belle Vue Zoological gardens, a definitive reference memory of the current older generation of Manchester, is an affective aesthetic resonance for connecting structures interloping through a new park.
The endurance of memory is at once internally central- in the memory-theatre treatment-space where the patients’ memories are stored - and externally distributed - the “memory gardens” integrate the institution with the local environment problematising (with the necessary banality of stealth) a more general status of sense and non-sense.
Treading a fascinating balance between a stoic, pragmatic, realism and a determined, delicate and fantastical dimension, this project poses the problem of dementia care for architecture - eruditely, directly and without falling into parody, patronage or simplistic utopias.

2008
As people live to a greater age it is inevitable that the issues of dementia will become more significant. People with dementia are currently a hidden sector of the community and as such there is generally a lack of awareness and understanding. Exploring
Folly meaning madness also describes the space of madness in architecture, fanciful buildings which distort time and space, mixing madness and mystery. A series of follies, poetic spaces which deal initially with the issues of dementia feed into the site
The former site of Belle Vue Zoological Gardens a rich historical tapestry of lakes, gardens and amusements is used as a site of memories to accommodate a support centre and housing for people with dementia set amongst public gardens. The area will create
The environment plays a large role in designing for dementia. The gardens, surrounding the centre, celebrate memories held in the site, whilst historic wandering paths shape and connect the fragmented site, offering an infinite variety of activities, real
The housing environment breaks down the institutional care home into different house types with support at various levels from fully independent, utilizing technologies, to communal full care enabling them to remain living within existing neighbourhoods i
Utilizing the positive and negative aspects of dementia the proposal creates stimulating environments encouraging active treatment and normality for the residents. Training and therapeutic facilities are dispersed into the residential areas, enabling eas
The support aspect of the centre offers, consultation and diagnosis, training facilities for staff and meeting spaces for dementia related associations including seminar space, providing unique facilities in the North West. Simple linear arrangements allo
The main building and the housing are designed to be simple and logical whilst remaining traditional and familiar, designing to guidelines addressing the negative aspects, to create an enabling environment which supports and assists and is accessible, hom
A wide range of planting blends together interesting textures with delicate flowers which provide vivid highlights throughout the garden. Colour, contrast, shapes and smells provide sensory stimulations. Flowers can hold strong associations in memory and
Specifically designing for the person with dementia, not trying to control the issues but express them, the project attempts to blur the boundaries between the institutional and the non-institutional, the care home and the community and sense and non-sens
The semi-external spaces lie hidden amongst private gardens, providing intrigue and informing the public. Moving mechanical elements and wooden structures, resembling old fairground elements inspire distant memories. The shadow room plays with light and h
The training spaces challenge staff by interpreting the world of the person with dementia, to offer experiential learning for staff and active therapy for residents. Integrated into the gardens, the spaces intrigue and inform the public whilst, creating s
The mirror room plays with light and hallucinations. Layers of mirrors and changing materials create sensory space, using patterns, light and movement the room shifts and changes. A take on the funfair hall of mirrors, the room is used in staff training t
Reminiscence sessions help to create a more successful conversation, facilitating increased communication from the person with dementia, and helping them to take control of the interaction. Digital systems create a livelier and more engaging form of joint
The development works on varying levels from the urban and the community, the site, history and wandering, the building, guidelines and regulations to the person and the experience. The buildings are spread across the landscape to encourage residents to c
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