Carpe Diem –  dementia garden village

Challenge: An environment that helps people with dementia lead full lives

When the Municipality of Bærum set about building a new nursing home for people with dementia, they wanted a village concept. It was to be homely, varied, colourful and abundantly adapted to each individual resident, with their unique personalities and functional variations. The level of ambition was to be high, and basic human values should provide direction to the project.  
 
There are currently over 100,000 people living with dementia in Norway. An increase in the number of seniors means that more people are likely to be affected in the years to come. An appropriate physical environment that helps the elderly live full lives and achieve what they can manage brings many benefits.  
 
By thinking anew while keeping human values at the core, Carpe Diem represents a completely new typology within Norwegian architecture. It has associations to a garden village with trickling fountains, gazebo and street trees, a chicken coop, apple orchard and boat renovation area.  
 
Carpe Diem has specially adapted footpaths, bright colours and homely decor. There are social venues too, such as a cafe, hairdresser, pub, village square and cultural hall. Universal design has been introduced to every aspect of life for the residents. It is a garden village with both urban and homely qualities reflecting both the diversity of the residents, their relatives and the employees, as well as the Municipality of Bærum itself.  
 
The Municipality of Bærum is lauded by the architects for its close collaboration, its significant expertise in relation to dementia and its experimental approach to new solutions for this target group. Here, traditional norms for solutions for people with dementia have been challenged in several areas, with great success. 

Approach: Exemplary wayfinding

The residents at Carpe Diem live with different degrees of dementia. Many have difficulties in knowing where they are and may easily get lost. This can create uncertainty and fear and result in a high threshold or the need for companions to go for walks and explore. Carpe Diem has solved this challenge with a number of exemplary measures to make the area intuitive and homely while simultaneously encouraging activity. 
​   
The village’s outdoor areas are open and inviting. The buildings act as natural boundaries for the residents, so that they can wander around freely. And each neighbourhood has its own identity. The same applies to each housing entrance with different designs, colours and plants with unique smells. By stimulating their senses, residents find it easier to understand when they are back home. 
 
An exemplary measure to create overview – wayfinding – is a trail that goes around the entire village. The route encourages exploration and different sensory experiences through variety and tactility in safe surroundings and is designed as a loop to always take the residents back home.  

Result: Quality of life through inclusive design 

Carpe Diem Dementia Village focuses on what the residents can achieve, instead of setting limitations through unnatural barriers. The environment encourages exploration, activity and participation. With a sense of security created through trust and fixed frameworks, the residents get the opportunity to live active, worthy lives.  
 
Architecture and landscape architecture work together with a focus on empathy and dignity for everyone. Universal design has been fundamental from the very start. The result is holistic architecture both indoors and outdoors, offering a diversity of experiences, completely without ‘special’ solutions.  
 
Carpe Diem fully embraces the fact that people with dementia are a diverse group. Here residents can take a leisurely stroll along a beautifully planted trail, where the planting acts as a natural guide. Divisions into smaller zones along the way provide different sensory experiences. Here there is a small garden with a conservatory and white picket fence, recognisable from most neighbourhoods. Close by, a bench has been placed by the water feature for quieter moments. Following the path, different surfaces underfoot supply an important tactile experience. There is also outdoor training equipment for a little workout. The pathway, which is marked along the way as a trekking trail by DNT (the Norwegian Trekking Association) continues to a lean-to with campfire pan and chicken coop as well as a greenhouse and sensory garden where plants can be tended and weeded.  
 
It is also easy to join in with social life outdoors in the square or in the many other meeting places such as the culture centre, the café, the pub and the arts and crafts room. As in a normal residential area, there is a professionally furnished exercise room and a hairdressing salon that invites physical activity and well-being. Carpe Diem also has its own grocery store with a manned check-out. Every day, staff accompany someone from each housing unit to fetch food for the day's lunch menu. A trip to the store is an important detail in creating the most normal everyday life possible.    

Creating that homely feel 

In a garden city, you meet your neighbour on your way out of the door. It is one of the great qualities of living in such a place and strengthen the social sustainability.  
 
Indoors is homely and adapted to the residents' identity. The furniture is varied and different in each housing unit and is largely purchased from furniture stores, acquired in thrift stores or donated by employees of the municipality. The residential units look like ordinary homes and are adapted to the different backgrounds and lifes of the intended residents. All furnishings are coordinated and described by Cadi AS, the interior architect in the project. 

A typical problem of patients wandering into staff rooms has also been cleverly solved. Doors to these rooms have been painted like works of art and thus no longer look like doors, just another beautiful detail. 

No barriers between us and them 

Carpe Diem has become a place that welcomes and invites. A place where it is pleasant to be and pleasant to visit. 
 
Institutions are often characterised by closed doors, agreed visiting times, a feeling of us and them. Part of the real innovation Carpe Diem has achieved is breaking down this barrier. Carpe Diem is a genuine home for the residents, but it is also open to anyone who wants to visit. This makes it an inviting, playful, versatile place for relatives, residents of the neighbourhood, kindergartens and groups of friends.  
 
Maternity groups from the health centre meet for coffee. The neighbourhood kindergartens visit the outdoor areas and fill the air with the sound of play. Confirmations and weddings are arranged at the culture centre, often free of charge if the hirer contributes a cultural experience in return. The cafe is open to anyone who wants to visit, and at the pub friends can meet and watch a football match with residents.   
 
At Carpe Diem, there is a full calendar of activities for residents, which relatives and other visitors can also enjoy. The village square is a hub and gathering place for much of this activity. The wealth of experiences makes Carpe Diem whole unique in Norway. 

Benefits: Outdoor spaces should not be under-budgeted 

The outdoor and indoor areas are well integrated, and the landscape architecture is very important for the overall experience in Carpe Diem and in relation to the quality of accommodation and life in general for people with dementia. 
 
Carpe Diem sends a clear message to anyone wishing to build healthcare facilities: Outdoor spaces should not be under-budgeted. The requirement to create good quality areas should not fall victim to an investment economy with a focus on saving versus gain. In the short term, you save money; in the long term, there is a risk that people will not be happy. 

Fundamental human values

What is commendable and incomparable about Carpe Diem Dementia Village is to do with empathy and dignity for all by environments relating to people on an individual level, attending to basic human needs. It is an excellent project about universal design for the whole human being. The holistic design of the village is innovative, and the architecture and landscape architecture work well together.  
 
Carpe Diem leads the way.