Dulux Trade has furthered its work with the Building Research Establishment (BRE) to deliver evidence-based design principles to help improve environments for people living with dementia.
Chris and Sally’s House, a project designed to develop new solutions for an ageing population, has been created using insight from academics, design experts and people with first-hand experience of living with, or caring for, someone with the condition.
It is estimated that some 850,000 people in the UK live with dementia and 70-80% of those continue to stay in their own, unadapted homes rather than in any specialised form of housing or dedicated care environment.
Working with the BRE Trust, BRE, Loughborough University, Halsall Lloyd Partnerships and Liverpool John Moores University, Dulux Trade has supported the development of a demonstration home to present evidence-based approaches to adaptation and support solutions that allow people to age well at home.
The Dulux Trade colour schemes used within Chris and Sally’s House have been developed as part of a holistic occupant-centred design consideration, evidencing how wall coatings are able to transition from simply delivering core functional performance or aesthetic requirements, to making a valuable contribution to the wellbeing dimension of a specification brief.
Inclusive design encourages the application of colour to enable occupants to more-readily identify different areas of the living space; balancing their needs alongside the needs of their carers or family and giving them greater confidence to move independently within the space.
Careful consideration of colour combinations are also central to the set of accessibility design features.
Colour has also been used within the design solution as a way of reinforcing positive personal connections and to provide stimulation within the space.
Paul Fleming, commercial services manager at Dulux Trade, said: “We have been investing substantially in research, working to develop frameworks for different spaces and demonstrate, with tangible results, just how powerful colour and design is in the built environment.
“This dementia-friendly demonstration house is a perfect example of this and the project has allowed us to develop insight that means we can help people in the built environment across the UK. We hope the results can lead to real change in the way we consider our built environments for long-term occupation.”
Dr David Kelly, group director at BRE, added: “Dulux Trade and its colour experts have been instrumental in this project, which we hope will deliver evidence-based results to provoke real, lasting change in the way our environments are designed across residential and healthcare spaces.”