A more detailed presentation of 'The Reminiscence', a proposed redesign for an existing dementia home, Apex Harmony Lodge

1. Detail
Design
Low Li Xuan 2100677J TD01

2. User profile, design
statement, conceptual
sketches and sustainability
considerations
Scaled floor plans, sections
and 3D perspective views
Photos of my material board
and physical models
Introduction Plans
Material Board
Table of contents

3. User profile, design statement, conceptual sketches and sustainability
considerations
Introduction

4. User Persona

5. Resident persona
Name: Emily [65 years old], Female
Nationality: Singaporean-Chinese
Language: english, chinese and abit of hokkien
Family: husband [67 years old], 4 children [2 male, 2 female], 6 grandchildren [less than 7 years old]
Exercise: likes to take walks in the garden [mild exerciser]
Personality: talks to caregivers, other patients and visitors a lot. Able to strike up a conversation easily
Likes: gardening, taking walks in nature, crocheting, cleaning, cooking and baking
Dislikes: wasting food, uncleanliness and fast food.
Dementia stage: mild
Opinions on facilities: hopes that there can be easier access to the gardens, she wants to be able to go to any
nearby parks to take a walk, starting to find the garden in AHL repetitive and hopes to see some changes
made especially to the connectivity

6. Resident empathy map
Hear
- Cars and vehicles
- Family members when the visit
- Other visitors
- Nurses
- Other residents
Think and feel
- Worried that she will forget her family
- Loves cooking and baking
- Likes socialising with friends (other residents)
- Worried about her husband and his job and their children
and grandchildren
Insights
- Fears about losing her family
- Feels useless
- Frustrated about not being able to
leave the place like a normal home
- Doesn’t feel like she is contributing
much to the family (helping to clean
the house, helping to take care of
her grandchildren)
See
- Mosque
- Nurses [busy and don’t seem very happy]
- Garden
- Family
- Other residents and their visitors
Say
- I feel fine
- Hello! How are you?
- How was your day?
- Oh how i wish i could be cooking as well for the rest of us
- Don’t waste the food
Pain
- Scared of being forgotten
- Doesnt like being trapped in AHL
- Does not like the food (wants to cook)
Do
- Goes to the pantry frequently to help serve others
- Makes her own bed and others’ beds if they have not done
so
- Gardening and crocheting
Opportunities
- Can provide a cafe/working
environment for her to work as a
cook/baker
- Can have little fundraising fairs
where the patients can sell their
handmade items to raise funds for
the homes

7. Resident persona
Name: Sarah [68 years old], Female
Nationality: Singaporean-Chinese
Language: english, chinese
Family: husband [67 years old], 2 children [1 male, 1 female], 4 grandchildren [less than 7 years old]
Exercise:
Personality: does not talk about herself that much
Likes: listening to audiobooks, watching dramas and tv shows, enjoys watching movies
Dislikes: loud noises (noise sensitivity) and bright light (light sensitivity)
Dementia stage: moderate
Opinions on facilities: generally likes the current facilities, she wants more lounge areas with television so
that she doesn’t stay in her room all day in order to watch her favourite series

8. Resident empathy map
Hear
- Cars and vehicles
- Family members when the visit
- Other visitors
- Nurses
- Other residents
Think and feel
- Frustrated about forgetting simple things that
she could remember before
- Likes to watch shows during her free time
Insights
- Frustrated that many people have
to help her with her daily routine,
what she could do independently
before now needed her to be
dependent on someone
See
- Mosque
- Nurses [busy and don’t seem very happy]
- Garden
- Family
- Other residents and their visitors
Say
- I feel fine
- Why can’t I do this on my own?
Pain
- Frustrated about her lack of independence
- Wants to be able to move around freely on
her own
Do
- Watches shows broadcasting on the television
- Listens to audiobooks because reading is
difficult for her now
Opportunities
- Screening old school movies

9. Caregiver persona
Name: Freda [45 years old], Female
Nationality: Malaysian-Chinese
Language: english, chinese and cantonese
Family: husband [45 years old], 2 children [1 male, 1 female], 2 grandchildren [less than 7 years old]
Exercise: likes to go jogging after or before her shifts [moderate exerciser]
Personality: takes some time to actually get to know her, not very outspoken but when she feels more
comfortable she is able to speak up and be outspoken
Likes: jogging, listening to podcasts/audiobooks while jogging and reading, likes to go out with her other
colleagues during her breaks or holidays
Dislikes: uncleanliness and noisy environments
Opinions on facilities: because she lives in the staff dorms, she finds that the dorms are not well designed
especially for storage spaces and ventilation. Because there are many staff that sleep in the dorms during the
day they have to close the curtains to help provide a more conducive environment for them to sleep
comfortably in which causes a lack of ventilation especially since the main source of ventilation is the
windows. It also gets quite hot in the dorms during the day especially since the fans around the room is very
far apart and are small wall mounted fans and with the bunk beds and all there isnt much circulation of cool
wind to ensure that the room is not stuffy

10. Caregiver empathy map
Hear
- Cars and vehicles
- Visitors
- Residents
- Other nurses
- Primary school students going home
Think and feel
- Misses her family in her home country (but
she video calls them when she has time)
- Feels that the dorm rooms are quite hot
during the day
Insights
- Dorms can be stuffy and uncomfortable to
live in
- Storage seems to be an issue
See
- Mosque
- Other nurses
- Gardens
- Dorms
- Lack of storage areas
- Residents and their family members
Say
- Hello! How are you feeling today?
- How was your day?
- Who are you visiting today?
Pain
- Sometimes feels lonely (because she
is away from home)
- During hot nights, she feels
uncomfortable sleeping in the dorms
because its too warm for her
Do
- Is at the first floor most of the time
because she is in charge of a patient on
that level
- Attends the mindfulness courses that AHL
provides them
Opportunities
- Improving the living conditions of the staff
- Having more storage areas for the staff to
use to store their belongings and also have
spaces to properly store their supplies

11. Design statement

12. Main design statement
My design intent is to create a community gathering place
where individuals feel a sense of belonging and are able to
freely interact with one another.

13. Caregivers/Staff
- I want the setting to be warm and comfortable so
that the staff can unwind and rest soundly without
experiencing any discomfort and can properly
care for the residents without being ruffled from
lack of sleep.
The reason for this is through the site analysis, i can see
that the current living conditions of the staff
dormitories are poor and I feel that if the staff are not
able to rest comfortably, they will not be able to provide
quality care for the residents.

14. Residents
- A warm and cozy atmosphere for a cafe where
members of the public can visit to interact with
the residents working there and subsequently be
more educated about persons with dementia and
how they can help them.
I feel that allowing the residents to interact with the
members of the public through a platform like a cafe will
help with the residents feeling less trapped. This cafe
will be a two-way relationship of helping persons with
dementia feel less isolated from the neighbourhood
surrounding them and allowing the members of the
public to understand how they can be helping persons
with dementia.

15. Programmes

16. Programmes
Board game space
- Helps to stimulate the
brain
- Old school games like
wooden tangram, reversi,
airplane ludo, chess, wei
qi, old school card games
Gardening activity/hobby space
- Residents can take
up/have a better space
for facilitation of their
gardening hobby
- Gardening can help with
the prevention of
cognitive decline,
depression and stress,
and improve social
engagement in the elderly
Cafe + Mama shop Hybrid
- Have a cafe where the
public can visit, with the
residents working as
employees with the
supervision of the staff.
- Fundraising events can be
organised in the cafe
every year, selling the
artwork and handicrafts
made by the residents.
- Bring in a neighbourhood
mama shop to AHL
(mimics the void deck
mama shops)
- Help residents with
reminiscence therapy
https://medicine.nus.edu.sg/nmsc/gardening-good-for-physical-mental-health/#:~:text=Gardening%20and%20Horticulture%20Therapy&text=Previous%20research%20have%20shown%20evidence,social%20engagement%20in%20the%20elderly.

17. Atmosphere and mood board
Atmosphere I want to achieve:
- Void decks in older HDB blocks
- They have tables in void decks with
chess board tables, round tables
etc.
- Mama shops present
- A cafe lounge that is comfortable as well

18. Sustainable Design Considerations
● Usage of green walls, green roofs and garden
terraces to reduce the amount of heat and
sunlight that can be absorbed by the building.
○ The plants will act as a sun shader for the
building
○ Concrete absorbs a large amount of heat
easily and having plants that sit on the
surface of the building allow the building
temperature to not be as high

19. Concept sketches
These are some brainstorming
sketches and how i wanted the
space to look like initially

20. Concept sketches
- I started off with a simple sketch of the floor plan and where I wanted my activities to be, with the
concept of a central point in mind i decided that the middle intersection of the three buildings will
be where my activities will be.
- At first i tried a very organic shaped building and space but then later realised that there was no
link to the HDB atmosphere which is very geometric, and later decided to change the organic
shapes into curves that had more structure as compared to the free flowing organic shape

21. Models and
materials

22. Material Board
Hardwood flooring
Glass
Cement flooring
Oak wood

23. Process Model #1

24. Process model #2

25. Final model

26. Plans
Scaled floor plans, sections and 3D perspective views

27. Overall plan of the site
- The meeting point of the three buildings are
formed through a circle intersection.
- The circle gradually recedes by each level with a
dome as the roofing to help form a facade of a
half sphere as the meeting point.
- The circular void allows air flow from the rooftop
to level 1 while the dome prevents rain from
getting to the other levels.
- The void has a alternative purpose of
encouraging the residents of different levels to
interact with one another through this little
window which in turn encourages them to move
between the levels instead of staying constricted
on one level.

28. Plan of focus area
This is the floor plan of my focus area,
there are large open spaces which
helps emulate the large spaces in HDB
void decks with a few tables scattered
around the blocks.
- The semi-private lounge spaces
allow the residents to feel some
form of privacy while the lounge
is still generally open to walk
through.
- The indoor fitness corner allows
the residents to maintain their
health even when it rains and
they can’t access the outdoor
fitness corner.

29. Section A - A

30. Section B - B

31. 3D perspectives
Interior view of level 2 Interior view of level 1
Exterior view (West) Exterior view (East)

32. THANK
YOU