Our built environments significantly influence our mental and physical well-being. Nurturing and responsive spaces are essential for a holistic experience. Unfortunately, traditional institutionalized long-term care often falls short by overcrowding residents and providing poor living conditions that hinder their overall well-being. Recognizing these shortcomings, innovative design interventions in memory care have emerged, primarily focusing on establishing a homelike environment and promoting a holistic experience for people with dementia. This thesis applies a phenomenological approach to investigate the role of meaningful architecture, sensory perception, and human experience design in enhancing residents’ cognitive, social, and physical abilities. This Toronto-based thesis prioritizes the user experience, focusing on scales such as the sense of home, communal areas, way-finding, rooms, indoor/outdoor spaces, and therapeutic retreats to create therapeutic environments that improve the well-being of residents.
Parth Prajapati (2025) studied this question.