Alzheimer's and architecture

Alzheimer’s and Dementia are fast becoming significant epidemiological features of the late twentieth century.[1] Defined as progressive cognitive dysfunctions, which effect ones ability to recall familiar objects, places and tasks, those suffering are highly sensitive to their built environment. However, this is not readily noticeable when looking at the traditional architectural typologies of the nursing home, which either reverted to the International style or residentialism as architectural guides, both of which place little attention on the resident and focus instead on staff needs, function and sterility. With the addition of recent new centers for Alzheimer’s this is changing. The Alzheimer’s centre in Dublin by Niall McLaughlin, 2009, exhibits a shifting perception in Alzheimer’s and in nursing home architecture, focusing on promoting personhood and community alongside just medical care. Not only has this new center been given attention in the popular media but Alzheimer’s is also attracting some big names in architecture. Even Frank Gehry is currently designing an Alzheimer’s home in Las Vegas. This shift marks an interesting change in our attitudes to space for the infirmed elderly and how best to improve it. 

It has been strongly argued for years that the traditional models for the contemporary nursing home are not actually successful and that our social views of age as an institution are becoming outdated. The aging population is changing and with it so must the way we think about the architecture for them. The elderly are living longer, with 1 in 6 people in the United Kingdom living to 100 years of age.[2] This is both challenging our own expectations and obligations as well as threatening the social models we’ve grown accustomed to. Those entering retirement age have been termed the 3rd generation, as they are still mentally and physically healthy and taking advantage of it. However, simultaneously the number of elderly suffering from Alzheimer’s and Dementia is also increasing. In the UK alone, most estimates suggest that the total number of people effected is between ½-1 million.[3] However, little has been done architecturally to support those affected. As Arjen Oosterman points out in his article Fight and Accept, ‘the nursing home is the current default institution, but this hospital like end station is the horror scenario for everyone that still has their wits.’[4] With the baby-boomers hitting ‘old foggie’ territory, this perception of the nursing home will be forced to change. The post-war generation have a stronger sense of their rights and individual entitlements and have grown up questioning the state.[5] The approach to care will have to shift away from medical and towards human solutions and with this so will the architecture, where specialist care can be provided but not at the expense of a sense of individuality, community and sensual stimulation.

Alzheimer's Respite Centre, Dublin, by Niall McLaughlin Architects

The Alzheimer’s Centre by Niall McLaughlin exhibits this new approach. However, this was achieved differently from many of the traditional nursing homes in the UK and the Western World. First, it was privately funded as a bespoke project for the Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland. They are a voluntary organization and had been gifted a piece of land which they were able to get match funding for from the National Health Board. 


This meant that they had the luxury of not being profit driven and were able to avoid much of the bureaucratic red tape that can bog down public medical building projects. It also meant that a practice like Niall McLaughlin, who had no previous experience in medical architecture, were able to win the project. With this a very different scene was set, with a client whose incentive was not driven by profit and who had a clear interest in building an exemplar project and an architect free from any preconceived notions of medical architecture and looking at a subject with completely fresh eyes.

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Jasmine Lebeau is a graduate architecture student at the University of Westminster.


1. Tom Kitwood, Dementia Reconsidered (Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press, 1997) pp. 1 
2. William J R Curtis, “Building for a Longer Lifetime: Niall McLaughlin’s Alzheimer’s Centre”, The Architects Jounral, vol. 233, no. 5 (February 10, 2011) pp. 21
3. Kitwood, pp. 1
4. Arjen Oosterman, “Fight and Accept”, Volume, no. 27 (Summer, 2011) pp. 2
5. Niall McLaughlin, “Why Not Ask the Old People”, RIBA Journal, vol. 118, no.7/8 (July/August, 2011) pp. 46