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December 7-December 20, 2016 — COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL — Page 41
D esigners for senior living
spaces often think about
how their designs can help
residents transition seam-
lessly to new communities.
Unfortunately, moving from an inde-
pendent dwelling or single-family
home to a senior living community
can be anything but seamless. It can
feel as though you’ve stepped out
of your home and into a cold, bleak
corridor where every door looks the
same.
Indeed, the deep-seated stigmas
of senior living communities as
institutional are difficult to shake.
Buildings with bleak bare walls and
dead-end hallways lack warmth and
personalization and can make resi-
dents feel isolated and forgotten.
Our senior living practice seeks to
overcome these stigmas by prioritiz-
ing the concept of continuity, striv-
ing to make that transition more
seamless by developing solutions to
make passage as easy, comfortable
and familiar as possible. A natural
place to focus is the corridor.
Perhaps one of the most over-
looked areas of a living space, senior
living corridors are typically noth-
ing special. Dated carpet, blank
walls and institutional accessories
like nurse call lights and wall pro-
tection can easily strip a place of
inspiration and warmth. To combat
this, we encourage creative ways to
overcome common hallway hurdles
with tips for designing spaces that
emphasize warmth, customization
and community.
Be creative with hallway footprints.
The corridor’s shape is known as its
footprint. A hallway may be straight,
curved or even looped, which all
affect the overall
design and living
experience.
Curved corridors
introduce elements
of intrigue, flow
and even additional
privacy from neigh-
bors down the hall.
Looped corridors
are used in memo-
ry care settings to
encourage continu-
ous circulation and
avoid dead ends,
which can lead to
frustration and confusion. They also
promote exercise and positive wan-
dering experiences.
When dealing with an existing
footprint that is unable to be modi-
fied, dynamic flooring materials and
designs are an especially cost-effec-
tive way to affect a hallway’s foot-
print with subtle colors or patterns
to indicate entryways or directional
changes.
It’s also important to avoid blank
walls at the end of a corridor. Make
use of natural light, if possible, by
playing up windows with built-in
benches. Accented wall panels, eye-
catching art and seasonal displays
offer a nice alternative if windows
aren’t an option. Alcoves along a
corridor also can offer touch-down
points for resting or mobility assis-
tance, recreating miniature living
rooms to reiterate a cozy, homey
feel.
Don’t forget to look up. Ceiling
design and lighting can impact an
entire walkway. Surface-mounted
fixtures such as accent sconces can
add texture and warmth along a
hallway. Likewise, indirect LED light-
ing can create a more ethereal feel,
with the ability to change light levels
and color temperatures to create dif-
ferent moods or settings.
When it comes to ceiling design,
designers often prefer to minimize
acoustical ceiling tile to avoid an
institutional feel. Gypsum board
is a common alternative, which
maintains a clean, simple look. Gyp
soffits help create added depth and
dimension, great for achieving a sus-
pended ceiling or porch-like entry-
way, or simply breaking up a typical
corridor.
Make hallways accessible. Unlike
traditional residences or hospitality
designs, senior living spaces require
certain standards of accessibility
such as width clearances, handrails
and mobility storage. While design-
ers must incorporate these elements
into their designs, there are ways
to creatively improve the results.
Painted handrails can take on the
elegant look of residential chair rails.
Wall protection can be designed to
emulate decorative wallcovering
instead of solid, stippled wainscot-
ing. Mobility parking, storage and
charging stations provide dedicated
space off the corridor to keep mobil-
ity scooters and power chairs out of
the way. And when it comes to sup-
port spaces like mechanical and util-
ity rooms, painting frames and doors
to match the adjacent wall color can
make them less visible and distract-
ing to residents and visitors.
Create welcoming entryways.
There’s nothing like a friendly, well-
lit front porch. Tapping into that
familiar, welcoming feeling of home
and community connections can
be challenging without the right
entryway design. To achieve these
results on a smaller scale, design-
ers can include touches as simple
as paint color to accent doors and
walls, while structural elements
like recessed entries, transoms and
glazed sidelights can establish more
of a “front door” façade. Residents
may even feel encouraged to add
their own plants, doormats or sea-
sonal décor.
Another opportunity resides in
entryway personalization. Built-in,
backlit memory boxes not only light
up the vestibule but highlight resi-
dents’ meaningful photos or keep-
sakes. Digital memory boxes can dis-
play photos, videos or other digital
content about the resident’s life to
trigger memory or engage reactions.
Simple purse ledges can also do the
trick – but lack the same gallery-
like feel and security. Some spaces
use shared memory boxes between
doors, which can create connections
with immediate neighbors.
As it stands, hallways and entry-
ways often lack the warm, personal-
ized qualities so integral to comfort-
able senior living spaces. Budget
is often a concern, and existing
infrastructure or health and safety
requirements can make it difficult
to make dramatic changes. However,
even subtle changes like carpet color
and lighting can make an impact on
how residents perceive the space.
When designing for senior living,
consider how something as seem-
ingly straightforward as a corridor
can help residents transition to a
new space, improve their quality of
life and foster greater connections to
their new community.s
Julia Bailey
Senior interior
designer, OZ
Architecture,
Denver
Health Care & Senior Housing Spotlight