Inspiration

I’m often asked what inspires me when developing design concepts and detailing. I wish I could say that I have a secret Designatron like the Orgasmatron in Sleeper, but it isn’t that easy.

Fashion has always been a resource and it used to take a year or so to trickle down to the residential interiors market and then commercial.  Now it is happening within a year.  The consumer now understands the importance of expressing lifestyle in interior environments.  With a properly designed interior, you can update a whole space seasonally with just a few inexpensive accessory items that represent the fashion of that season.  This is nothing new; I remember as a boy when my mother would change the sofa slipcovers every fall for a new, fresh look.

I am constantly looking at new finish and construction products being developed and how they are advertised and showcased.  New technologies are being developed more and more quickly, but budgets are not.  The challenge I always give my designers is how to use a little bit of the latest product and make it impactful in just the right space to provide that marketing Wow factor that every community is looking for.  By the time the price has become competitive in a couple of years, other designers will be using that product and we will have moved on to something else.  It is all about creating a unique product for each unique community, no matter what the budget.

The casinos, resorts and retail stores in Las Vegas provide a great resource, but they don’t like you taking pictures in the casinos.  I always have my partner standing by telling security that I am not taking pictures of the gambling, just photos of the interior detailing.  The disciplined “anything goes” approach the designers take with their designs offers so many springboards for ideas.  Just one little metal detail in a chandelier can generate a concept for a dining room, and has.  It is also about using typical materials in imaginative ways that tickle the mind into thinking “what can I do with this 2-1/2-inch clam molding other than use it as a resident room base?”  I usually get a negative response to my Las Vegas inspiration with regards to seniors, but have you ever noticed how many seniors are enjoying themselves there?

My education brainwashed me with historical architectural references that I use to this very day.  Classical detailing and proportioning have stayed constant throughout the various periods, including modernism, but many chose to ignore it.  My stomach churns when I see molding applied haphazardly.  With just a little bit of effort, it can be designed and applied correctly and at no additional cost.  This allows the finishes to be applied correctly so you don’t have any collisions at those outside corners!  The modern aesthetic is relying heavily on detailing again.  The use of classic patterns mannered in the mid-century is being used by Jonathan Adler today.  Or look at Brocade Furniture, with their baroque-inspired contemporary pieces.   My approach when creating traditionally influenced interiors is to bring the different periods together to create an eclectic environment, not the tired matched-set approach so prevalent in senior living communities.

I saved the most obvious inspiration for last: nature.  I am not talking about selecting carpet with a leafy vine pattern, furniture upholstered in oak green, rose red or sky blue, finished off with Hudson Valley artwork; but this is what is usually passed off as nature-inspired.  I am talking about expressing the feeling the natural experience provides to your mind, body and soul.  Trying to mimic nature provides a feeling of not quite being able to access those feelings.  The challenge is to create environments that evoke the simplicity of nature, the textures of nature, the randomness of nature, the movement of nature.  One day I was walking along the Lady Bird Lake trail here in Austin, like I have done hundreds of times; but this day, for some reason, I noticed the random shadows of the tree canopy on the trail and how the people passed through them.  The trail reminded me of a typical resident corridor that is usually treated statically with repeated patterns and/or borders with lighting repeated constantly as well.  Why not treat the corridor as a path we experience in nature with surprises along the way?  Why not?

Technology in Long and Short Term Care Nursing Communities

studioSIX5 Blog 2

8/22/2011

By Dean Maddalena, AIA, NCARB, President 

               It probably comes as no surprise that technology has had steady growth in medical records, charting, and on the care giving side, with most communities already upgrading or planning to in the near future. A more unexpected impact of technology, though, is with the residents and their families.

               Short term stay residents expect a hospitality environment with healthcare rehab services. A nursing community with a great reputation and a sterile environment will lose out to the community with a great reputation and a hospitality environment. And communities not only have to impress potential residents and their families, but also the physician networks who recommend communities to their patients. Would they want to recuperate there?

               People over 60 are now the fastest-growing users of social networking. This means that residents and their families will expect the presence of wireless networks throughout communities to access their Internet. This will encourage multi-generational visits with access to Internet socializing and games for interaction. And the residents themselves can enjoy additional benefits, such as computer games (Wii, etc.) for physical as well as cognitive exercise. Residents enjoy these games so much that they have tournaments that encourage social interaction with other residents, caregivers and family. There are also computer programs for resident wellness education.

               Long-term care residents enjoy the same things, but there are additional programs for them, such as “legacy” programs where they can document their life with words, pictures, stories, facts, family history, and so forth. This brings joy to their daily routine to create these legacies, knowing they will pass them on to their families.

               There are also mental exercise computer games, such as Little Shop of Treasures, in which players have to find hidden items that are in plain sight, or computerized jigsaw puzzles. There are also computer-based, brain-training games, such as math quizzes or matching games like Mahjong. Most interesting of all are programs such as Dakim BrainFitness (http://www.dakim.com), which was designed specifically for seniors. The program combines trivia games with memory-challenging games and constantly adjusts itself to remain challenging to individuals using the software. It addresses six cognitive areas: language, critical thinking, short-term memory, long-term memory, computation and visuospatial orientation. The company states that its system, which includes a full touchscreen computer, is now being used in some 420 communities nationwide.

               And with the rise of smartphones and the somewhat larger tablet computers, there are likely to be a whole new generation of apps for seniors—not only for games, videos and large-type reading, but also apps that will provide ways for caregivers to follow up with clients after a visit, or for families to more easily communicate with residents between visits. We are just at the beginning of this revolution. Better care and more active and engaged seniors are sure to result from these developments.

What Role Do Children Play in Choosing a Senior Living Community?

                 As I began thinking about this topic, I remembered the case of a son in his 50s trying to help his father, a man in his mid-80s, who had been the caregiver for his 80-year-old wife who was suffering from late-stage Alzheimer’s. The parents lived in a suburban environment. The son, who lived in a city 500 miles away, had taken a week off from work to help his father, who had just realized he was no longer physically able to continue to care for his wife, choose a skilled nursing community for her.

                Together they toured several different communities in the area. The husband was determined to remain in his home as long as he possibly could, so he was uninterested in moving to a CCRC community where he could be near his wife. The communities they toured varied enormously in terms of amenities, age of the facilities, and cost structures. The son tended to favor newer communities, or those with the most amenities. In the end, the community they chose was chosen by the husband’s most important criteria: proximity to his home—it was only about a mile from his house. He still drives, but the community was also on the bus route, so if he became unable to drive, he could still visit his wife twice a day. The community wasn’t the nicest, or the cheapest, or the most expensive. It was not a memory care community. In fact, it was a bit dated and in need of renovation. It was simply the closest. As they say in real estate, location, location, location.

                Had the husband not still been living, the wife would probably have ended up in another community—perhaps in another state—because the role of the “caregiver” would have shifted to the children. And the children will most likely look for those tangible things we all think about—location, newness or reputation of the community, the quality of the staff, the cheerfulness of the environment and the amenities/services it offers—and don’t forget about the quality of the food service and the security the community offers.  In many cases where the parent is a surviving spouse, s/he will participate in these decisions, which may involve choosing a CCRC with a cheerful environment close enough to the child with responsibility for care to make regular and frequent (we hope) visits. In other cases, it may be left to the child alone to make the decision, and with the guilt many children feel when placing their parents in these communities, you can bet they will choose on the basis of cheerful, pleasant environments, quality of staff, amenities, food quality, security and ease of access (for the child, not the parent, and statistically, this child is a 55-year-old first-born daughter). Most importantly, the child will ask herself, “Would I want to live there?”

                So when designing new or updated senior living communities, it’s worthwhile for marketability to realize that there are a couple of different generations you’re trying to appeal to, and their motivations for making their ultimate decisions vary by generation. But the key thing is that this is typically the first time the family (parent and children) learn of senior living options. And this is a chance to sell two generations on your community. The (adult) child has to be wowed for future decisions in his/her own life.