Mary's Little Worlds: Changing Person-Space Relationships When Living With Dementia

Abstract

With the case study presented in this article we explore how people with dementia experience and use their environment to expand our understanding of how architectural environments can improve their well-being. We focus on how relationships between people and spaces change for people with dementia. Using a qualitative analysis of three in-depth interviews with a woman living with dementia, we obtained an insider's perspective and a rich account of the changes in her life, including her lived experiences and interventions in her home environment. We contend that looking at people with dementia in relation to and interaction with their environment, combined with an explorative research approach, might reveal multiple and innovative possibilities in designing for people with dementia. To that end, and to build on existing architectural expertise, we suggest focusing on architectural ordering principles across different cases.

Keywords: dementia; environment; interviews, semistructured; lived experience; self.