People with dementia and a supporter were able to work together with design experts to learn the skills needed to become more involved in the process of designing dementia inclusive environments at what is claimed to have been the world’s first design school for people with dementia, held at Birmingham’s Crowne Plaza Hotel last month.
The event was staged by the Dementia Centre, an international research, education, and consulting service operated by charity, HammondCare. It was co-hosted by Associate Professor Colm Cunningham, the Centre’s director, and Agnes Houston MBE, who has lived with dementia since 2006, and campaigns to improve the lives of people with the condition. The event will be the first in a series of design schools which the Dementia Centre hopes ‘will result in a rich bank of knowledge about dementia-inclusive design that then can be used by architects, planners, developers, and service-providers, to create better buildings and spaces for people living with dementia’.
Associate Professor Cunningham said: “The idea for the design school came from a discussion I had with Agnes Houston. We felt there was a real need to increase the involvement of people with dementia in design. People living with dementia have in many cases learned to live with environmental barriers, and developed personal solutions to these challenges that people who do not have dementia could learn from.”