We are told that the number of people with dementia will increase enormously over the next 20 years, and yet many care homes and hospitals do not provide access to usable and / or appropriate outdoor space. In fact, many people with dementia become virtual prisoners once they are in ‘care’ for their disability.Although the benefits of both access to outdoor space and the physical activity in gardening are generally appreciated, still these are all too often denied – maybe due to the needs for savings in a building project or concerns over ‘health and safety’ in undertaking what are after all the activities of normal living. I feel passionately that all people and in particular older people and those with dementia should have the freedom of access to the outdoors, to feel sunlight, breezes, rain and to enjoy pottering or gardening at their leisure.
Having been sponsored by the Dementia Services Development Centre at the University of Stirling to go on a course in the design of healing gardens held at the Chicago Botanic Gardens, I am contributing to and editing a book to be written by the DSDC team of experts on the benefits of easily accessible outdoor space.
We aim to cover best practice for all outdoor areas including balconies (extracts from Mary Marshall’s book), terraces, courtyards, and larger scale gardens.
[see article in FiOP’s last newsletter]
Courtyards in particular are much used in larger scale developments as they provide safe, supervised open space as well as daylight to buildings with a large footprint, yet I suspect that many are far too small to be useful for activities or to provide sufficient sunlight.
To help us with this task, we would appreciate any feedback from your readers on good or bad examples of outdoor space generally and in particular on courtyard size and design.
Annie Pollock
Architect and Landscape Architect
My contact email is
annie@arterre.co.uk
see also website:
http://www.arterre.co.uk
