Member Article

Designs on Care Success

THE UK care home market is one of the few sectors set to grow, with three quarters of people likely to need some form of social care during retirement, and an extra 50,000 places needed in the next decade. With more people now paying for their own care than those funded by local authorities, many of those places will be in privately owned care homes, where residents expect more choice, higher standards and greater engagement in their care.

All of this will affect the sector’s profitability, and Newcastle-based architects practice and care sector experts Alston Murphy is well-placed to comment. The company is celebrating 20 years as a specialist in all categories of the public and private sector care industry, in addition to working on a wide range of buildings outside the care industry, including nurseries, private homes and commercial and industrial projects, as well as sports centres, churches and heritage buildings.

Head of Practice Iain Murphy has a genuine passion for care of the elderly: “I believe older people have the same right as anyone else to live in pleasant, comfortable surroundings and that architects have an obligation to use vision and imagination to create a homely environment,” he says.

“People with care needs should not be expected to live in a sterile environment, just because it needs to be functional on a large scale. To the residents it’s not an institution, it’s their home.”

Iain has designed more than 130 care homes, from the luxury end of the market (think restaurants, roof terraces, cinema rooms, physio suites, gyms, and hair and beauty salons) to projects with the tightest of budgets.

He believes good design can be incorporated, whatever the financial constraints: “That’s not just an altruistic stance, it makes commercial sense. If a care home is not a welcoming place where people want to live or work, it will never be at full occupancy and investors will not see a good return.”

Uniquely among his profession, he has road tested his designs by moving into a care home and living as a resident, and is currently going one step further with a CRB check, allowing him to work as a carer in a residential home.

A particular interest in designing for dementia residents saw Iain attend a recent Stirling University three-day programme on successful design principles for dementia sufferers. The University’s Iris Murdoch facility is an internationally-renowned centre of excellence for dementia research and training.

Iain is using its dementia-friendly design and layout principles to work with GB Building Solutions on a new Gold Standard care home for Cumbria County Council. The brief is to create an outstanding exemplar building for dementia care, and the design will be assessed by experts at Stirling University.

Having been involved in designing buildings for all ages, from very young children to the elderly, Iain has one remaining ambition – to design a crematorium: “They offer unique design problems and many existing buildings fail to achieve the necessary ambience or solace that is needed in such buildings,” he says.

“Many crematoriums are non-denominational but that does not have to mean featureless. My ideal design would focus on space and light to create a sensitive, spiritual place that is about the living as well as the dead.

“The last building so many of us will visit should be a fitting tribute to life and a comfort to those that are left behind. I’m a strong believer that good architecture should follow us at every stage of life, from the cradle to the grave.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Iain Murphy .